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Passengers take fun out of Southwest's supermodel airplane
Try to have a little bit of fun and those pesky passengers get all bent out of shape. Last month, Southwest Airlines joined up with Sports Illustrated to paint the side of one of their Boeing 737s with the image of Bar Rafaeli, an Israeli supermodel, in a white, two-piece swimsuit. It's a brief promotion aimed at promoting the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition and tickle a few passengers who happen to randomly be riding on (or near) the aircraft. Wouldn't your day get instantly better if you were waiting to take off at 7AM and saw a giant supermodel taxi past you?
But not everyone is as tickled as we are. A slew of passengers, many on Southwest's corporate blog are complaining about the paint job, equating the image to "soft porn." They want it taken down.
Think they're being ridiculous? Check out the gallery below. Think they're right? Read on:
Gallery: Southwest and Bar Refaeli
Have you ever seen soft porn? It doesn't look like this. Women less adorned are all around us, from billboards in New York City to The Sears Catalogue to, oh, I don't know, THE BEACH.
Southwest is just having a little bit of fun turning heads in the direction of their aircraft, but if you can't stand the sight of a pretty Israeli woman, cover your eyes or stop flying for the next couple of months until they repaint her. The promotion only lasts a few more weeks.
Southwest is just having a little bit of fun turning heads in the direction of their aircraft, but if you can't stand the sight of a pretty Israeli woman, cover your eyes or stop flying for the next couple of months until they repaint her. The promotion only lasts a few more weeks.
Reader Comments (Page 30 of 30)
David DeMarco Mar 7th 2009 6:17AM
I wonder if the person most deeply offended was the same old bat
who's complaint to HR caused me to have to remove a picture of my
other half in a swimsuit from my office.
All the attention given to a few pains in the rear is a laugh.
Lady it isn't the world's fault that you have such a strong
resemblence to Carry Nation.
melissa Mar 7th 2009 7:15PM
Helene, Victoria's Secret is soft PORN? Seriously? A ladies' lingerie and clothing catalog? Wow. I guess we're all soft porn under our clothes, huh? Then under our lingerie we're all hardcore porn!
Wesley Mar 8th 2009 1:57AM
It is highly simplistic to call Southwest hypocritical based on the incident where the woman was removed from the plane for wearing a mini-skirt and this plane's paint job. Southwest has tens of thousands of employees. That incident where the woman got kicked off was clearly an incident where an employee acted in a way that was contrary to how Southwest would have liked the situation to be handled. It was merely a mistake by an employee and is not indicative of Southwest as a whole. This is clear from how Southwest originally handled the situation in the days the followed (Southwest said they were sorry and joked about how their flight attendant used to wear hot pants as part of their uniform!) and even more clear as a result of this plane's paint job.
Susan Jordan Mar 7th 2009 10:39PM
There are so many other problems in the world that need dealing with, that this isn't worth all the energy being directed toward it. Why don't we think more about "World Peace". I must admit it seems a bit silly to put just a picture on the side of the plane. Instead they could have painted homes in Habitat for Humanity and painted the plane. They would have won on both levels.
libdamage Mar 8th 2009 8:48PM
Realy Carl?
Since when were the Romans moral or religious?
000Carl said...
"Moral, religious" people are the ones who killed Jesus Christ in the first place.
Michael Smith Mar 8th 2009 11:42PM
DKK---While I agree, in theory, with your "argument", I think that if you'll "look around", you will find that there are several airlines out there who cater to the "female" sense of what is considered "stimulating".
I suppose that the "other side of the coin" was simply not brought into play due to the fact that Gadling didn't include that fact in their "story line."
Michael Smith Mar 8th 2009 11:45PM
Oh, and "BOB"...I don't know for certain, bud, but I'd say it's "high" time to put the crack pipe down! How in the WORLD can you pontificate like you are, in an area of the internet where it doesn't even apply?
T Mar 9th 2009 9:39AM
This is amazing that this is actually being hashed out. I would say this is a success. It's called "advertising" so chances are SW didn't pay to repaint the airplane. Look to SI for that... Does your newspaper print ads for car dealers for free? Not so much.
Beyond that, look at the buzz that this whole fiasco created, kudos to SW again!
bob Mar 9th 2009 12:50PM
A woman posing practically naked...and thats not soft porn? Just because I don't see the "parts" doesn't mean it is not pornographic. The definition of pornography from Dictionary.com is: "Sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary purpose is to cause sexual arousal" You mean to tell me a woman in almost nothing on the side of a plane is there so that one someone looks at her they get hungry for french fries? Yeah right. That's not just soft porn, that's porn in every way.
DC Mar 9th 2009 3:08PM
Bob, you are an absolute douche. Are you being serious? Do you live in 16th century England? What is this? Are you part of a cult? Did you live on that ranch in Texas with all the other creeps?
bob Mar 9th 2009 10:02PM
No I am an American who has no respect for woman who take off their clothes to get somewhere in their life or the men who want the woman to take of their clothes. Obviously you aren't educated enough to understand what pornography really is. Go back to high school and stop thinking with whats it your pants. How about you get out of 16th century England and get some guts to stand up for something that everyone else thinks is ok. Just because everyone else says that this is ok, doesn't make it ok.
kyle May 13th 2009 2:09PM
you all need to stop crying about a woman in a swim suit, next time you go to the beach you better get your phone out and start filing complaints about all these half naked women. they asked the lady before to cover herself up because she was exposing herself to the rest of the plane... maybe next time she wears a skirt she will consider wearing underwear along with it. I find it pathetic that you all complain about a bathing suit and support a girl that was exposing herself to a plane full of adults and CHILDREN.