Argentina Airlines taught a sexist passenger the best lesson: “Prejudice does not fly”
It’s always a happy surprise when brands genuinely engage with their consumers (and critics) on social media. We especially like it when brands take a stand and get a little sassy which, trust us, is totally warranted sometimes. For Argentina Airlines this week, that type of engagement meant shutting down one very sexist passenger.
Andres Horatio Pignataro complained on the airline’s Facebook wall that the airline’s flight attendants no longer meet his standards of beauty. He writes: “What gets my attention is the low quality of flight attendants that the company has. Before they were tall and nice, now they only take short, fat girls . . .”
Almost immediately, Argentina Airlines responded with a list of qualifications they considered when hiring staff. Hint: Sexual desirability for passengers was not on that list. The list did include things like being over 18, being a citizen of Argentina, being able to speak English and swim, and meeting height requirements (a lot of airlines actually have flight requirements, so that’s not as weird as it sounds . . . it’s for safety reasons). The post was pretty forceful.
If that very informative list wasn’t enough they ended with what’s possibly the greatest sign off, and double entendre of all time: “Prejudice doesn’t fly, we leave it on the ground.”
Flight attendants rushed to support their airline, posting selfies on Twitter with the hashtag #prejuiciosnovuelan (which translates to #PrejudiciesDoNotFly). Andres, was that the answer you were looking for?
And that, friends, is how you turn a hateful comment into something worth celebrating.
Images via, Argentina Airlines’ Facebook page, and Giphy