Ryanair charity calendar generates complaints
Howard Lake | 17 December 2007 | Blogs
And you thought it was just the nude (or near nude) charity calendars that raised eyebrows…
A calendar being sold by low-cost airline Ryanair to raise funds for Irish charity Angels Quest has attracted complaints for depicting bikini-wearing female flight attendants. The Institute for Women in Spain said that it would be complaining to Irish and EU authorities.
The 2008 calendar, called ‘the Girls of Ryanair’, depicts 12 female flight attendants posing inside and outside Ryanair aircraft. It is being sold for £5.
“We’re not talking about morals or nudity here, it’s simply how women are portrayed,” said institute spokeswoman Maria Jesus Ortiz said. “If there had been men in the calendar, I’m sure there would have been no controversy.”
Ryanair’s defence of the charity calendar was robust, pointing out that the woman posted voluntarily. Indeed, the airline is now thanking “the Spanish Moaners Organisation Facua, whose latest whinge has sent sales of the Ryanair calendar through the roof”.
Ryanair’s Head of Communications, Peter Sherrard, indicated that the airline was not just helping raise funds for charity but also demonstrating its support for human rights, or rather one particular right. “Ryanair is defending the right of women to take their clothes off”, he said in a news release today. I’m still checking the small print on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for that one.
Although online stocks of the calendar are now sold out – “stocks stripped bare”, was the Ryanair headline – people could still try to buy them “on our flights where they’ll have the added advantage of being looked after by Europe’s best and sexiest cabin crew.”
So, form a queue, all those charities interested in a charity of the year partnership with Ryanair. And, ladies first, of course.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.