Air New Zealand in hot water over new cougar ad

by Scott Carmichael on

Air New Zealand has a history of fun and creative TV commercials. In the past, they used their own bodypainted staff to promote their service, and this time, they recruited cougars. In case you missed it, a cougar is an older woman who preys on young men. Air New Zealand describes them as “too old to be your girlfriend and too young to be your mom”.

Even though the ad has very little to do with air travel, it is absolutely hilarious. Of course, as with any controversial TV ad, a group complained about it, and Air New Zealand pulled it from the air. Despite the humor in the clip, rape victims in New Zealand were not amused, claiming the clip was “appalling, disgusting and degrading to women”. What do you think?

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Carnival says “no way” to cougar cruises

by Scott Carmichael on

Back in September, Tom wrote about the first “cougar cruise”. For those out of the loop – Tom describes a cougar as “an older women who happens to enjoy the … ummmm … “company” of younger men.”

The cruise was on board the Carnival Elation and obviously the story made quite a bit of news. So much news in fact, that Carnival has now told the organizers behind the cruise that they are no longer welcome on their ships.

Someone from Carnival issued the following statement: “This theme group was not sponsored nor organised by Carnival but rather by a travel agent and the cruise line will not be allowing any future groups to be booked and marketed under this theme.”

I find this statement to be pretty dangerous – what grounds does the cruise line have to ban this “theme”. What is next? A ban on gay single groups? Older men and women? I’m not entirely sure why older women seeking a “cub” (the name given to the younger men) would force the cruise line to tell them to go elsewhere. The cruise was described as a huge success, so I can only assume Carnival either hates its guests having a good time, or they are making so much money, that they feel they can decide what kind of guests are welcome on their ships.

Still, the organizers has no problems finding other cruise lines who had no problem with the concept, and the second and third cruises have already been scheduled (on Royal Caribbean and NCL).