A U.S. airline is taking advantage of the hype surrounding the U.S. Secret Service and Colombian prostitutes in a spoof ad campaign.
A new advert by Spirit Airlines, which offers flights between the U.S. and Latin America, features a gaggle of bikini-clad women alongside a sunglasses-clad man, inviting customers to get “more bang for their buck” with flights to Colombia.
Different elements of the scandal, in which it was revealed that a group of Secret Service and U.S. military personnel had taken 21 prostitutes back to a Cartagena hotel last week, are mocked in the ad.
“Upfront payment required,” it states, a reference to the alleged dispute over payment between one of the agents and a prostitute which is believed to have led to the scandal’s discovery.
The viewer is left in no doubt as to where the airline believes the most Latin American”bang” can be found, with an invitation to visit “Cartagena and other destinations” — an insinuation unlikely to go down well in Colombia, where there is frustration that the country is once again being portrayed by the age-old stereotypes of prostitutes and drugs.
Secret Service Assistant Director Paul Morrissey announced yesterday that three agents were leaving their jobs following preliminary investigations. One supervisor was sacked and one retired, both said to have more than 20 years experience in the service. Another more junior employee resigned, said the official.
Another eight officers are under investigation, as well as up to 12 members of the U.S. military.
U.S. investigators are in Cartagena attempting to track down the women that were taken back to the high-end Hotel Caribe, where Obama delegation was based during last week’s Summit of the Americas.
Copies of their identity documents that were left with the hotel’s reception are being used. Back in the U.S., the men involved will be undergoing lie detector tests as bosses try to determine exactly what happened and to what extent presidential security was compromised.
