Spirit Exploits Celebs With "Bare Fare"

What's better for branding then participating in slut-shaming? Apparently, that was the thinking over at Spirit Airlines on Wednesday morning that sent out an email to their customers with the above image and the subject line, "Our Selfie Leaked Too..." having a laugh at the expense of the many, many female celebrities who were victim to the huge nude photo hacking scandal over the weekend. If the goal of the email was to alienate all of their female customers, or anyone who loves, respects, or even knows one woman in their lives, then congrats, Spirit, you did it.

The ad was to promote their "Bare Fare" campaign, and along with the dismal graphic illustration of a cartoon woman covering up her breasts, the copy was even more offensive, reading:

We feel naked; you were never supposed to see this Bare Fare! It was meant for a special someone (who isn't you). Now it's all over the internet for you to take advantage of as you see fit. Scandalous! We thought the cloud was our friend, y'know, because we spend so much time flying with 'em. But now our private prices are on display! Bad for us; GREAT for you.

Setting a record for being offensive as possible in seven sentences or less, the ad manages to: 1. Insinuate that the celebrities were at fault for taking nude photos, 2. Their private property deserves to be taken advantage of because of their stupidity, 3. Naked women are scandalous, 4. Someone always benefits from privacy violation. What a feat! As if it isn't enough that the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Bosworth and Ariana Grande have to face ridicule from news networks, late night TV hosts, and anyone with a Twitter account, not to mention embittered legal battles, now they have to see their private, personal ordeal being made into a marketing sham for profit. Good luck EVER getting any celebrity endorsements in the future, Spirit. Luckily, Twitter users were rightfully disgusted by the ad and tweeted for its removal, and claimed they would no longer patronize the airline.

Spirit pulled the ad, and N. Paul Berry of Spirit issued a typical non-apology statement which basically, summed up, was "Sorry you're mad," saying the ad "wasn't meant to be offensive," and that most people "accept" Spirit's irreverent ads for what they are. If that were true, they probably wouldn't have to pull their marketing and issue statements of apology, but let bygones be bygones. Spirit's Bare Fare ad just contributes more to the exhausting victim-blaming of the whole ordeal; they literally make a cartoon of the women affected by the hacker, and exploited them further by using them to make money. Even Apple wouldn't shoulder any of the blame for the photos being leaked, and it's a damn shame that more and more, it seems like everyone wants to place the responsibility on the victims whose privacy was violated. That's definitely not the spirit.

Image: Twitter.