Spirit Airlines Promotion Tries To Cash In On Nude Photo Hack Story

While some people may be feeling sympathy for the celebrities whose naked photos were hacked over the weekend, one company appears to be turning it into a cringe-worthy marketing campaign.

Just days after the stolen photos were posted online, Spirit Airlines e-mailed consumers a promotion for its Bare Fare program that included direct references to the major hack, the Wall Street Journal’s CMO Today blog reports.

“Our bare fare was hacked,” reads the e-mail. “We feel naked; you were never supposed to see this Bare Fare! It was meant for a special someone (who isn’t you). Now it’s all over the Internet for you to take advantage of as you see fit.”

The promotion even references reports that hackers accessed the nude photos through Apple’s iCloud. (For its part Apple says the hack was just good guessing, not a security breach.)

“We thought the cloud was our friend, y’know, because we spend so much time flying with ‘em. But now our private prices are on display.”

A spokesperson for Spirit tells CMO Journal that the promotion was not meant to be offensive.

“We have a long history of taking major national news stories and tying them to our marketing. Most people think they are funny and accept them for what they are. We accept that a small group of people might not think the same way,” the spokesman says.

Spirit has a history of making interesting promotional choices. Last year the company attempted to capitalize on former New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner’s second admission to sending saucy messages to women. The airline used the tag “The Weiner Rises Again” accompanied by a texting hot dog named Carols Danger to promote vacation packages.

Spirit Airlines Uses Nude Celeb Photo Leak To Promote ‘Bare Fare’ Deal [The Wall Street Journal]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist