The low-cost British airline EasyJet removed from its official social-media account an advertisement that featured a flight number tattooed on a customer’s arm after social-media users criticized the ad’s references to the Holocaust.
“While this is a genuine picture of a customer’s tattoo celebrating their first flight with us, we understand the concerns raised and as a result decided to remove the post,” EasyJet said in a released statement, the New York Post reported.
EasyJet shared the ad online over the weekend, captioning it: “You never forget your first flight.”
The arm tattoo in the ad was similar in style to those forcibly given to Jews in the Holocaust and “never forget” is a common phrase used to remember the Nazi persecution of Jews during World War II.
One Twitter user shared a screenshot of the ad before EasyJet deleted it, writing wrote, “No, EasyJet. Please, no.” He added that “this is why corporate social-media channels need to vet and authorize content before being distributed.”
In 2009, EasyJet apologized and withdraw almost 3,000 copies of an in-flight magazine following complaints about a photo spread that showed fashion models posing at the Jewish Museum in Berlin and leaning against a Holocaust memorial.
The airline also apologized in 2020 for referring to Italy as the “land of mafia and earthquakes,” according to the New York Post. JNS
