ARTelevision

Check out this hot (wanna come to Iceland?) babe!
She's really (FLY ICELANDAIR!) sexy!
..................
Sexist Icelandair advertising tries women's patience
-from Yahoo News

REYKJAVIK (AFP) - Icelandic women may pride themselves on their cool patience, but national airline Icelandair has finally pushed them past the tolerance limit with advertising they perceive as sexist and degrading.

Perhaps it was the new game on the airline's website in which points are scored by snatching the bikini tops off giggling girls that brought the rage to a Geyser-like eruption.

Or maybe what set them off was the ad in the London Underground calling on travellers to go to Iceland to "pester a beauty queen", topping off a long series of similarly ambiguous invitations.

But the fact is that Iceland's women have had enough, and the airline will have to answer them in court.

"Some of Icelandair's campaigns where Icelandic women are presented as sex objects obviously violate the laws. By using word games the company is suggesting that Icelandic women are loose or promiscuous," said Valgerdur H. Bjarnadottir, head of the Centre for Gender Equality.

Both the Centre, and The Icelandic Women's Rights Association, are suing Icelandair for allegedly violating the recently-passed Equal Rights Act with its advertising.

The airline is by no means a recent offender.

"One-night stand in Iceland" reads one infamous slogan from the past, inviting Americans and Europeans to stop over for a night on trans-Atlantic flights.

In another ad, an image of a young couple taking a mud bath was accompanied by the caption offering Britons "a dirty weekend".

Not to mention the one where three, obviously naked girls cuddled each other in a ridiculously oversized Icelandic sweater.

For years, Icelandic women, who have shouldered more then their share of the burden in times of earthquakes (news - web sites), eruptions, fierce icy winters and foreign colonial oppression, simply ignored Icelandair's campaigns, but not any more.

"The Company is violating the rights of all Icelandic women with their advertisements and it was inevitable that we had to respond," said Dorbjoerg I. Jonsdottir, chairwomen of the Women's Rights Association.

And the fight will not stop there, adds Bjarnadottir, who calls the legal action "a landmark case."

"If the ruling is in favour of Icelandic women, we have a good weapon to fight increasing pornography in the public domain where advertisers seem to go further and further in using sex in selling their products," she said.

Asdis Eva Hannesdottir, a stewardess for Icelandair and leader of the Icelandic Air-Hostesses Union, said she and her collegues are not happy with the company's advertising strategy either.

"We do not agree with these campaigns and there must be other ways to sell the country," she said.

"We are constantly fighting for increased recognition as professionals and these adverts do not help."

They also make their jobs more difficult in an environment where sexual harrassment is already rampant.

Nearly 40 percent of Icelandic air hostesses have experienced some form of sexual harassment, according to research by an Icelandic medical board.

This contrasts with, for example, two percent in the country's banking sector.

"This is a part of a more complicated picture", Hannesdottir says, "but obviously the image of Icelandic women portrayed in the Icelandair ads does not help."

The airline's staff also blame their company for encouraging cheap jokes at their expense.

Last year American TV show "The Sopranos" featured prostitutes dressed, barely, in "Icelandic Airline" uniforms, partying in a New York hotel room. The show was called "Money for nothing and Icelandic Chicks for free".

The company declined to comment on the allegations, but said previously that it welcomed the chance of a "civilized discussion".

Spokesman Gudjon Arngrimsson told Icelandic daily Morgunbladid recently that the company was the victim of a "slander campaign" after Icelandic feminists called for a boycott of Icelandair.
.........

I like sex.
I don't like having my hormones massaged in an attempt to hypnotize me into spending money and buying stuff.

You are probably strong enough to resist this type of thing, I bet.
You can probably just check out the babes and make up your own mind about things.
That's great!

If I was a woman, I'd be a lesbian feminist...

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create evolution

GoldenOuroboros

Sex sells, always has...

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Can you see me grin grin grrriiiiinnnning?!

Daval

must...go....to....iceland....

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"It is impossible to obtain a conviction for sodomy from an English jury. Half of them don't believe that it can physically be done, and the other half are doing it."
Winston Churchill

krwlz

...always will.

The_Dude

hooters x 10 airline?

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"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal

Liquor Dealer

We used to get into Reykjavik quite often when I was in the navy. It was always an enjoyable few hours. Sex sells and they sold it.

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Life isn't always a bowl of cherries, sometimes it's more like a jar of Jalapenos --- what you say or do today might burn your ass tomorrow!!!

Bill O'Rights

I need to find that website and play that game.

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"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

ARTelevision

yes, sex does sell.

I gather you guys have no problem with it being shoved at you by companies who are trying to entice you to buy their products.

Of course, I'm not implying that any of this has ever affected your view of women or sexuality or has ever caused you to associate yourself with a sexually advertised product.

In any event, I have a problem with it. Does that mean I want to ban it?
No.

I just don't appreciate the intent.

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create evolution

rockogre

I agree. I never did like the intent, like we are all just gibbering fools, but I learned to see it for what it is. I also think that a lot of it should fall under the false advertising laws as the enticement never pays off in the end.

No matter what the promise, I can't imagine many women of any intelligence backing up all of this sexual inuendo. I'm for these women that all seem to be painted with the same brush. I wish em luck.

While we're kind of on this subject, I don't appreciate all the CRM, Customer Resource Management, software hitting the market. We are all being sliced and diced so that advertising can be more specific to each of us.

If your product is worth anything you shouldn't have to manipulate the public to buy it.

Anything else from here on would just be ranting.

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Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you,
Jesus Christ and the American G. I.
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom

platypus

I guess they passed on the slogan...

<b>Pork Bjork!</b>

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Out the 10Base-T, through the router, down the T1, over the leased line, off the bridge, past the firewall...nothing but Net.

krwlz

Yea, I agree ART, being manipulated like that sucks, but since (I'm assuming) we are all smart enough (here anyway) to see it for what it is, we can just enjoy the sights, and laugh at the fools who fall for it.....Right?

ARTelevision

krwlz,
that's what people keep trying to tell me.

I include myself among everyone when I say none of us can be aware of the extent to which we have been influenced by all of this for all of our lives, especially at deeper levels than we are able to monitor with any certainty.

That's the saddest part of all this, as far as I am concerned - how easily we convince ourselves that all the billions of dollars giant PR, marketing, and producing corporations continue to spend on researching the minutia of our lives and how to manipulate us are ineffective - or not effective enough to be seriously concerned about.

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create evolution

Eviltree

hmm, yes what is that website?

guthmund

You owe me a new keyboard....I just blew soda out my nose on this one

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No signature. None. Seriously.

WhoaitsZ

nod.

I might even buy a Bill 'O Reilley (sp) t-shirt or something if it had boobies on it.

(and if you don't understand my slight dislike of BoR, read his thread on politics)

we've all tried so hard to be a puppet master that we never believe we can be the puppet. its all a big joke... a weird one. and what is funny is, like he said, even we KNOW its going to happen we still fall for it..

and we make fun of animals for falling for the same tricks over and over. our egos are way too high.

PS: I can't say the company is exactly doing a moral thing, but its their company, their money, their customers. i wish people would learn to mind their own fucking business and leave that kind of shit alone.

remember Ladies. actions speak louder than words. (or so i've heard)

maybe they should tighten their skirts up awhile..... men may change

(or women get even bitchier, make a nuke and kill us all)

platypus

Heh heh. Not exactly the effect I anticipated, but I think it did have more punch than...

<b>Bjork! The other, OTHER white meat.</b>

__________________
Out the 10Base-T, through the router, down the T1, over the leased line, off the bridge, past the firewall...nothing but Net.