Tour company defends sexist ad, releases follow-up

Tour company defends sexist ad, releases follow-up
By Amy Bryant


Kazakhstan’s budget travel site, Chocotravel, has defended a new television commercial that featured seven naked women flaunting cheap holidays.

Chocotravel’s ad has been slammed as “disgusting” and “offensive” after it featured models posing with just their flight attendant hats and neck scarfs, with the slogan: “Chocotravel does not demand anything unnecessary from you.”

Unsurprisingly, the ad suffered the inevitable social media backlash, with outraged viewers labelling it as “disgusting” and degrading to women.

But instead of removing the advert from Chocotravel Facebook page and Youtube channel, Ticketing Service Director Nikolay Mazensev defended the ad.

In a Facebook post, Mazensev denied that it was offensive or sexist in anyway. In fact, he described it as “bold and outrageous”, claiming Chocotravel “did not mean to offend”, per news.com.au.

“It shows no less than you’d see on the beach or by the pool. Do you attack girls in short skirts or swimsuits?”

Another employee of Chocotravel parent company, Chocofamily, Nurken Rzaliyev, also took to Facebook to defend the ad, saying, “There’s definitely no sexism”, per news.com.au.

“Opinions were divided, but attention was made to the problem of high ticket prices.”

The company released a follow-up  male version of the original ad, that featured naked men in nothing but pilot hats and a tie.

Some people have responded to the Chocotravel’s adverts saying that they perpetuate gender stereotypes, and is offensive to women, while some have said it is liberating for women.

According to news.com.au, one responder said that the women “are brave people who are not afraid to experiment or act to change the world”.

A critic of the ad said, “This is so shallow, the company must be really in huge financial trouble to release it. I will never buy tickets from them”.

“This is a failure, guys. You should ban it and make another video of people who created this ad in the same naked manner, making an apology,” complained another less than happy viewer.

An employer of Chocotravel’s parent company Chocofamily, Nurken Rzaliyev, disagreed with the backlash, stating that, “There’s definitely no sexism.

“Opinions were divided, but attention was made to the problem of high ticket prices.”

For those of you who are yet to witness the bizarre follow-up ad, check it out below:

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

Chocotravel sexism

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