Spirit Air's Newest Tactless Ad Makes Fun of Schwarzenegger-Shriver Family

May 25, 2011 at 2:24 PM | by Omri | Comments (0)

We used to joke that Spirit Airlines had set its eyes on becoming the Ryanair of the United States. They have the single worst baggage fee policy in the country, they flirt with innovations like non-recline seats, their top officials enjoy acting like jerks, etc.

Then that turned out not to be a joke at all, which we found out when Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza proudly declared that Ryanair "has been an inspiration" to the American LCC. So we were unsurprised when Spirit rolled out ads based on Charlie Sheen's meltdown and even on the Gulf Oil spill. And we're now equally unsurprised to learn that the airline has gone ahead and made a joke of the Schwarzenegger-Shriver ugliness.

The new ad is oh-so-cleverly based on Schwarzenegger's series of Terminator movies, and was posted as a web video on Spirit's site. The viewer "looks out" through the red-tinted eyes of a robot as it scans the room and eventually settles on a house-maid, at which point the screen reads "sexy maid acquired." Get it? Because Schwarzenegger had an affair with his maid. Then the video scrolls a new message saying "fares so low, you can take the whole family! Including that half-brother you just met." See? Because Schwarzenegger devastated his children and his wife of 25 years by fathering a child out of wedlock. It's a joke!

Obviously these ads are just meant to get attention. And just as obviously, we're kind of rewarding Spirit for its tactless behavior by writing about them. Fair enough. Just as long as everyone's clear that they are obnoxiously tactless, and that they are willing to play on a broken family to sell tickets. Stay classy, guys.

[Photo: Spirit Air via ABC World News Now]

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