KUALA LUMPUR, 27 March 2019: AirAsia is in hot water after an advert told Brisbane residents to “Get off in Thailand.” Critics said the campaign promoted sex tourism.
First reported on the BBC website Monday, AirAsia has since apologised over its campaign that was labelled “harmful” just hours after the bus advertising hit the streets of Brisbane.
Thai AirAsia X will operate the new service between Brisbane and Bangkok, but Collective Shout, a grassroots campaign movement against the “objectification of women,” claimed that the advertising promoted sex tourism in Thailand.
The BBC report said Thailand has over 123,530 sex workers, basing the count on a 2014 UNAids report.
Collective Shout campaigner, Melinda Liszewski, spotted the advert on a Brisbane bus and posted the image to social media.
A spokeswoman for AirAsia told the BBC: “AirAsia takes community feedback extremely seriously and the airline sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused from recent concerns raised.”
The advertising campaign was subsequently withdrawn including some posted at Brisbane Airport.
Brisbane City councillor Kara Cook called the campaign an “absolute disgrace” and said “it should never have appeared on our city’s streets,” the BBC reported.
She wrote on Twitter: “Council should be responsible & accountable for the ads on their buses.
AirAsia is not the first nor will it be the last airline to be caught up in controversy over presenting innuendos that point to Thailand’s infamous sex tourism label.
In the 1970s, Thai Airways International ran what is considered its most successful advertising campaign “Get into it” that left very little to the imagination as to the inferences the airline’s campaign was making at the time.
The campaign won awards and was credited with putting the fledging airline on the world aviation map.
Meanwhile, Thai AirAsia X will launch new four weekly Bangkok-Brisbane flights 25 June. Fares start at around AUD239 one-way.
When announcing the new service, earlier this year, AirAsia X Group CEO, Nadda Buranasiri, anticipated it would bring around 25,000 visitors a year to Brisbane, while at the same time “providing the opportunity for Queenslanders to explore Thailand’s capital and its many exotic island destinations.”
(Source: BBC with additional reporting)
