Spirit is back with its bordering on tasteless oil spill promotion

Spirit Airlines is known for irreverent, bordering on tasteless, marketing campaigns. Will the Miramar-based Spirit’s pitch be seen as funny, playful or downright crude this time?

Spirit Airlines is known for irreverent, bordering on tasteless, marketing campaigns. Will the Miramar-based Spirit’s pitch be seen as funny, playful or downright crude this time?

In a new promotion, Spirit Airlines is using wordplay to show that at least one Florida beach contains oil – sun tan oil.

The company says the promotion seeks to address “the false perception that we have oil on our beaches,” by encouraging customers to continuing to travel to Florida and other vacation hot spots.

Upon visiting the Spirit Airlines website, visitors are greeted by a large photo slide show that begins with “Check Out The Oil On Our Beaches.”

The slide show continues with images of glistening bikini-clad women relaxing in the sand, with descriptions of summer hotspots, including Cancun, San Juan, Atlantic City, and Ft. Lauderdale.

The pitch ends with a bottle of “SPF $50 off.”

Clicking through leads to an offer of $50 off a roundtrip airfare to selected destinations for a limited time.

Apparently, not everyone is happy with the promotion, and Spirit says the wanted to provide clarification. “It is unfortunate that some have misunderstood our intention with todayโ€™s beach promotion,” the company says. They also point out that “the only oil youโ€™ll find when traveling to our beaches is sun tan oil.”

Still others think it’s great for the state. Spirit says they received an email from a Gulf-side vacation home owner who “appreciate’s the airlines efforts to stimulate travel to Florida.”

The promotion continues through June 24, and you can find Spirit Airlines at spiritair.com.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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