Spirit Airlines Mocks Oil on Beaches

This week, Spirit’s online promotion displayed bikini clad ladies saturated in tanning oil. But those are not the only attractions for eager vacationers; just yesterday, an Arkansas family got to watch an oil-covered dolphin struggle for breath after it stranded on a North Florida beach. They tried to revive it, but the dolphin died en route to a rehabilitation organization in Panama City. There’s even video.

Oh, wait. I’m sorry, was that not funny? Maybe because Spirit Airlines’ promotion wasn’t funny either. Of course, that didn’t stop them.

Spirit emailed this ad to its subscribers on Tuesday at 1:21 p.m. I know this because I was one such subscriber. It’s no coincidence that the bottles of tanning oil just happen to be green and yellow; BPs colors. As you can see, the bottles are labeled “Best Protection,” with the "B" and the "P" highlighted in bold. In addition to the subject line of the email, the first sentence of the ad asked subscribers to “Check out the oil on our beaches. You won’t be disappointed.”

When outrage at the callous ad erupted in the blogosphere, Spirit didn’t even have the good sense to issue an apology. Nope; instead, they responded by saying we just didn’t get it: “It is unfortunate that some have misunderstood our intention with today’s beach promotion. We are merely addressing the false perception that we have oil on our beaches, and we are encouraging customers to support Florida and our other beach destinations by continuing to travel to these vacation hot spots … Although misunderstood by some, today’s promotion was clearly appreciated by others.”

Oh really, Spirit Airlines? They quote one of the emails they received from a “customer,” thanking them for stimulating travel to the state of Florida, but even that email fails to thank them for their poor taste in tactics.

Also, as you can see, the ad highlights travel to Atlantic City, Ft. Lauderdale, Cancun and San Juan, Puerto Rico — destinations that have, thus far, been untouched by the spill. If Spirit wanted to promote tourism to the Gulf Coast, it could have. But instead, Spirit thought that it would be ok to poke fun at sea turtles being burned alive. Spirit thought that massive die-offs resulting from fish, dolphins, and sharks getting trapped close to shore were amusing. Spirit thought that the dogs and cats facing euthanasia, due to their owners having lost their livelihoods because of the oil spill, are an appropriate subject for humor.

They are wrong. And you can help demonstrate just how wrong they are by participating in Saturday’s global protest to prevent future oil spills. Because these pictures aren’t funny.