Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was recently unbanned from the European Union, with the first route resumption being between Islamabad (ISB) and Paris (CDG). Well, Pakistan’s government is now reportedly investigating the airline, over what might be one of the most widely seen airline social media posts ever…
In this post:
Pakistan’s Prime Minister calls PIA ad “stupid”
When PIA resumed nonstop flights to Paris, the airline shared an attention grabbing post on social media, depicting a PIA Boeing 777 flying straight for the Eiffel Tower, with the caption “Paris, We’re Coming Today.” For better or worse, this certainly created a lot of publicity surrounding the carrier’s return to Paris.
However, it seems that Pakistan’s government isn’t in the “any publicity is good publicity” camp. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has now ordered an investigation into the controversial social media post, including determining who approved the advertisement. He has reportedly called the ad “an act of stupidity.”
What made this even worse is that back in 1979, PIA had an advertisement depicting a plane flying straight for New York’s World Trade Center. Admittedly at the time, that might not have seemed very controversial, but you’d think that a lesson would’ve been learned there in hindsight.
My take on this controversial PIA flight ad
The way I see it, there are two possible explanations for this ad.
One explanation is that PIA’s social media department consists of one or two people, with very basic photoshop skills. Like, they found little clip art of a plane and the Eiffel Tower, and they couldn’t figure out how to point the plane in the other direction. So they put the airplane and Eiffel Tower “art” into the post, and called it a day, without putting much further thought into it.
The other explanation is that the people behind this ad knew exactly what they were doing, and took the “any publicity is good publicity” approach. Like, if they just posted a random picture on Twitter/X, it wouldn’t have gotten much visibility. Meanwhile with the post they published, they got a lot more eyeballs on what’s ultimately an important development for the airline.
Personally I think the former explanation is the most likely, and that this came down to incompetence rather than some brilliant Ryanair-esque social media strategy. That being said, in all honesty, I think the government shouldn’t take things so seriously here.
I think this ad going viral was a net positive for the airline, as it created a lot of publicity surrounding the carrier’s return to the European Union, when it would’ve otherwise gotten very little attention. And this didn’t actually harm the carrier’s reputation. I mean, we’re talking about an airline where many of the pilots were found to have fake licenses, so…
Bottom line
Pakistan’s Prime Minister has ordered an investigation into the national carrier over a recent ad celebrating the carrier’s return to Paris. This depicted a 777 flying toward the Eiffel Tower and went viral, being viewed well over 20 million times. The Prime Minister has called the ad “an act of stupidity,” and wants to determine who approved this ad.
What do you make of Pakistan’s government investigating PIA over this Paris flight ad?
Will the French be lining-up to fly PIA? Will Karachi and Islamabad be featuring on Gallic travellers' "must see" lists? It's difficult to imagine, as is the desirability of transferring at either of their airports.
Why don't we see whether the 2-years-since-last-maintained PIA jet actually manages to survive the journey to Paris before worrying that they'll make good on their implication to hit the Eiffel Tower!
Honestly, I would have banned them again. Learn your lesson!
In Europe there's this thing called free speech. Americans really need to learn more about how the rest of the world works.
Europeans and Brits do Thoughtcrime really well. In Germany one can actually defame a dead person, as bizarre as that may seem, and in 17 European countries it's a criminal offense to deny minimise the Holocaust. For sure, that's a pointless and obviously ridiculous thing to wish to do, but making it a criminal offense to voice the "wrong" opinions is extraordinarily authoritarian.
I will strongly object. Jist check the censorship law dressed and sold as for protection of citizen. Not to mention some website were silenced by government without a reason.
Their graphic artists graduated from the same school their pilots did.
Ok @DT that's the funniest comment I've seen on this site in a long time. And actually, you might not be too far off the mark.
Seriously. Who cares about the orientation of the plane. It's clear they wouldn't fly into the eiffle tower. People have too much time on their hands!
The PIA exec though it was 'stupid'~ he probably knew in which country it would get the most attention, and I don't mean France.
Even Eskimo would not be so silly as to approve such a faux pas.
While I tend to agree with you, I don't think that they neglected to turn the airliner in the other direction. No, I think they did it on purpose because in their (apparently) simple mind, the jet is flying TO Paris and the Eiffel Tower is Paris.
Honestly, I think there's a level of naivete and incompetence involved that is laughable. As is that ad. But it sure does get clicks.
PA R IS, not Paris. Complete incompetence in my eyes.
True, the content was so amusing that I failed to notice the ridiculously spaced font. Amateur hour at PIA (which seems to be every hour there).
Always kerning truthers.
If they turned the airplane in the other direction (my initial thought too) it wouldn't match the slogan that they're "coming to Paris."
If you google 'el-al' it comes up with a whole bunch of israel stuff
@ upstarter -- Sorry, say what?
I think both airlines - in only slightly different ways - have become symbols that people associate with a much bigger cultural and political trend du jour that we need to "address" in (on?) the online sphere, so to speak. I think it's great that you're doing it here on your blog with this post, both respectfully and thoughtfully. But whether the airline management, their marketing team, or crew, intend it or not... there's no...
I think both airlines - in only slightly different ways - have become symbols that people associate with a much bigger cultural and political trend du jour that we need to "address" in (on?) the online sphere, so to speak. I think it's great that you're doing it here on your blog with this post, both respectfully and thoughtfully. But whether the airline management, their marketing team, or crew, intend it or not... there's no way I would be happy with this advertisment. I wouldn't fly PIA unless I really had to, but I'd be really happy to go on a flight to Israel or wherever on El-Al. How bizarre is the PIA (and AIC, for that matter) IFE?! Goodness gracious. Sorry long reply lol but I hope that clears things up :)
No it doesn't; your'e just digging a deeper hole!
Agreed - now this comment has become the #1 unsolved mystery on this blog. The world wants to know!