Mar 06 2009
No Team “Spirit” for Airline.
There has been some serious debate going on with the Miramar Fla.-based airline, of which sells low cost flight throughout the U.S. It seems the airline forgot their is no “I” in team. Spirit has recently proposed changing their Flight attendants uniforms to something that can help increase revenue, namely aprons laden with advertisements for alcoholic beverages. Seems the Attendants are not happy with the changes.
According to the Association of Flight Attendants chapter at Spirit Airlines, the apron that would go with new uniforms is “unacceptable attire that sends customers the wrong message.” One main concern is that the airline sells alcoholic beverages to customers of legal age on board, but flight attendants are required to stop serving customers who are already intoxicated.
The union says the uniforms would seriously hurt a flight attendant’s ability to enforce such regulations, as well as be taken seriously in the event of an emergency. ”Turning flight attendants into walking billboards is unacceptable, The proposed aprons diminish the primary and federally mandated role of flight attendants as safety professionals.” said Deborah Crowley, president of Spirit’s flight attendants union chapter.
The uniform debate is not the only advertising issue facing Spirit. The airline has faced some heat for ads they ran using the term “MILF”. A term commonly used in the pornography industry to suggest (in the best terms I can summon) “a sexually attractive mother.”
Although they did not leave the acronym open for interpretation, stating that it stood for “Many Islands, Low Fares.” many feel the ad had “double standards” and that a coincidence of acronyms was an unlikely answer. The fact is, Spirit airline ran the same series of ads in 2007, receiving an internet backlash for explioting the term. You know what they say, Bad publicity is still publicity. I tend to agree.
Please Comment below!
I agree that they could not be taken seriously wearing that uniform in the event that they would have to stop serving someone or if there was an emergency. Who would listen to someone who is wearing an apron that says, “Budweiser” while they are saying, “I’m sorry sir, you have had too many”?? Great article David! Thank you