As has been pointed out, since the “special areas” are strategically covered you aren’t really seeing anything more than would be revealed in say a bathing suit or some lingerie. So just how far do we want to go in “not offending people”? I’m not saying anything should go, but at some point things can get a little crazy with “avoiding offending others.”

For some cultures a woman exposing anything other than her face is considered obscene, so in an attempt to “not offend them”, should airlines stop making magazines available to their patrons?

As for “nudity in public”, body paint conceals that at least to some degree.

And without getting into a debate over what constitutes a “true” Christian, I’m pretty sure many “christians” don’t have a problem with it.

And anyone believing in a creator can’t deny that we were all born nude. I don’t subscribe to the idea that a God, or a higher power, etc. that created all things wonderful and majestic, would turn around and say, “oh but please keep my wonderful creation covered”, “We can’t have anyone offend by my wonderful creation” Let’s just say, I don’t think God would be that hypocritical.

But, the world, whether a person believes it was divinely created or not, is not a perfect world. If you, or I, or anyone else had “the right to not be offended.” that alone would still not make it a perfect world. Should I be the self-appointed czar of what’s offensive? Should you be? Or should we get someone else to do the job? One person’s chocolate is another person’s turd and vice versa.

And as it has also been pointed out, the audience would mainly be native New Zealanders, who apparently are liberal enough to handle it.

edit: After giving it more thought, I think “Native New Zealanders”, should probably be replaced with New Zealand citizens and locals.

is reasonably aware of the possibility of offending people. The video is for New Zealand domestic routes only, not the international market. While Air New Zealand doesn’t fly to the Middle East, it does fly to some socially conservative Pacific nations, where the video could possibly cause offence.

Although I haven’t seen the video (my internet is dial-up so Youtube is awful), Air New Zealand has been running advertising with a similar theme in newspapers and on billboards, which exposes far less than you could see on a beach. I don’t find the ads objectionable at all.

The background is that recently we had a new airline enter the New Zealand market, offering fares that looked very cheap, but they charge extra for baggage, particularly if the passenger doesn’t book the baggage at the same time as the flight ($20 extra in that case). Air New Zealand came up with the “nothing to hide” idea as a way of pointing out that their fares covered everything, there are no hidden charges. It seems to have been effective at helping them hold their own in a tough market.

As a flight attendant, when do you ever “cover everything” to avoid offending them?

It would definitely not be appropriate for all flights/all countries! I was thinking more for U.S., Europe…and New Zealand obviously.

Luckily they do not leave such important decisions up to uninformed people like me :)