Sex scandal forces Cathay to review ad campaign

A sex scandal has forced Cathay Pacific to review a marketing campaign that bills the airline as "the team who go the extra mile to make you feel special," a company spokeswoman said Sunday.
The Hong Kong carrier launched an investigation last week after photos were published on the Internet of a woman in a red outfit resembling its cabin crew uniform performing oral sex on a man, reportedly her boyfriend, on board.
Two Cathay employees subsequently left the company, but the embarrassing episode -- which reportedly took place in the cockpit -- has caused the airline to consider postponing its "People and Service" campaign.
"We are thinking of holding the campaign back for a little while because the timing doesn't suit us at the moment," said a spokeswoman, noting that the "extra mile" slogan was launched in 2010.
The emergence of the sex photos is considered to have compromised the advertising campaign, where cabin crew and staff are to be featured on billboards and newspaper and magazine slots, a newspaper report said. "The timing of this scandal really could not have been worse in marketing terms," a Cathay management source was quoted as telling the Sunday Morning Post.
"The scope for the slogan and the campaign to be misinterpreted, or ridiculed and lampooned, in light of the cockpit incident, is obvious."