The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2018
VietJet put bikini models on a football team's flight home — and the country turned on it
Bikini-clad dancers performed for Vietnam's U-23 football heroes. Players looked uncomfortable. The CEO called it 'improvised.' The airline was fined.
VietJet Air · 2018-01-28
What happened
In January 2018, VietJet Air arranged for bikini-clad models and dancers to perform on a charter flight bringing home Vietnam's under-23 football team from the Asian Cup in China. The team had just lost the final but received a hero's welcome nationally. Photos showed players visibly uncomfortable during the performance.
The stunt triggered massive public anger. Critics called it rude, cheap and offensive to the team and the nation. Online, people mocked the airline as 'Vietjerk' and 'Vietsex,' and some vowed to boycott. CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao apologised, calling it an 'improvised performance' by the logistics team — a response widely seen as dismissive and insufficiently accountable.
Vietnam's Civil Aviation Authority fined VietJet 40 million dong (approximately $1,760) and the chief stewardess 4 million dong, saying the event could have posed a safety risk. The fine was small, but the reputational damage was not: the airline's brand became synonymous with the stunt rather than its service.
Why it happened
- The stunt treated a national sporting moment as a marketing opportunity, misreading the emotional register of the occasion
- The CEO's 'improvised' framing shifted blame to logistics staff rather than accepting institutional responsibility
- The players' visible discomfort in photos undermined any claim that the performance was celebratory
- The airline's existing brand identity — already associated with bikini-clad cabin crew — meant the stunt read as escalation, not novelty
The lesson
A stunt that borrows someone else's emotional moment — a team's homecoming, a nation's pride — must match that moment's tone, or the brand becomes the story instead of the celebration.
Aftermath
VietJet paid the fine and issued an apology. The airline continued to grow as a business, but the 'Vietjerk' label persisted in online discourse. The case is cited in Vietnamese marketing courses as an example of tone-deaf experiential marketing.
Sources
- CBS News: VietJet Airline sorry for bikini flight stewardess performance
- France24 Observers: Models in bikinis on Vietnam footballers' flight
- The Straits Times: Vietnam budget airline gets penalty for football bikini show
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