Swedes aghast over Ryanair bikini calendar

Sweden's advertising watchdog has been flooded with complaints concerning an advertisement for a calendar featuring scantily clad Ryanair stewardesses.

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Less than a month after the release of the 2012 edition of Ryanair’s Cabin Crew Charity Calendar, the Swedish Advertising Ombudsman (Reklamombudsmannen-RO) has received 33 complaints about adverts promoting the calendar.

“People think the advertisment is sexist and that it doesn’t belong on a website meant to sell plane tickets,” Advertising Ombudsman Elisabeth Trotzig told The Local.

The wave of complaints lands the Ryanair calendar campaign second only to an ad campaign for the Victoria Milan dating service, which encouraged marital infidelity, in terms of the number of complaints filed with the Ombudsman.

Ryanair now has two weeks to respond to the Ombudsman about the complaints, after which the watchdog will decide how to proceed with the case.

According to Trotzig, the Ombudsman isn't likely to issue a statement on the case until after Christmas.

Ryanair’s spokesperson Stephen McNamara didn’t seem the least bothered by Swedish complaints over the calendar, a project the airline has carried out annually since 2008.

"Ryanair's cabin crew calendar has raised €500,000 ($672,000) for charity in just five years and we will continue to support the right of our crew to take their clothes off to raise money for those who need it most," he told The Local.

In line with previous years, all 10,000 copies of the 2012 edition of the Ryanair swimsuit calendar have been sold.

The resulting €100,000 in proceeds are set to be donated to the organization DEBRA, which helps children with the genetic skin disease Epidermolysis Bullosa, which leads to extremely sensitive and fragile skin.