ASA requests that Ryanair withdraw 'sexy schoolgirl' advert

A Ryanair ad, which showed a woman dressed in a "provocative" school-girls uniform has been banned by the ASA.

The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) has asked that Ryanair withdraw the ad as it feels the ad is offensive and portrays school-aged girls in a provocative way.

The image shows a woman (who is quite clearly not in school anymore, but I won’t pass comment) in a classroom, dressed in a short skirt and skimpy top. The caption on the image reads,

“HOTTEST back to school fares”

The authority said it received 13 complaints from people who claimed the ad was offensive and that there was sexual connotations to the image.

The ASA said that the classroom setting, together with the type of clothing the woman was sporting "appeared to link teenage girls with sexually provocative behaviour and was irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence".

Ryanair still maintain that the ad is only likely to cause offence to a handful of punters,

"the ad was likely to be found offensive only by the minority of people who were likely to find any such representation objectionable".

The ad has been run in three newspapers (The Daily Mail, the Herald and the Scottish Mail) who have since agreed not to run the ad again. The ASA are asking for Ryanair to withdraw the ad, presumably in the hopes that no one else will be exposed to the sheer indecency of it all.

There is of course the problem of the exposure all the media coverage will garner. . .