Airline’s cougar advertisement is creating controversy
January 23rd, 2010 - 11:23 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt
Wellington, Jan 23 (THAINDIAN NEWS) An advertisement campaign by an airline, which portrays single middle-aged women as cougars, who look around bars in search of hot hunks for sex, is creating a lot of controversy. An advertisement for an airline that portrays older, single women as “cougars” who prey on young men at night has drawn the ire of a rape prevention group. Air New Zealand’s cougar advertisement has drawn a lot of flak from the NGO’s and other rape victims, as they feel the offensive ad encourages rape.
Air New Zealand is offering around 60 tickets for next month’s Wellington Sevens rugby tournament to older women “who prefer their meat rare”. A company spokesman said the competition, which closed out Monday night, had produced an incredible amount of entries and positive feedback on ’such a good bit of light-hearted humor.’ The ad is heavily inspired by the Discovery Channel-style documentary.
“We have also had complaints from male survivors who have been raped by women and they are very distressed that their situation is being laughed at and made out to be humorous,” director of New Zealand’s Rape Prevention Education, Kim McGregor said. In their defense the airline said that the advertisement campaign was supposed to be light hearted, but they were surprised that people were offended by it.
Video : Controversial Banned Air New Zealand Cougar Ad - Watch and decide
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