PIA’s Unfortunate Paris Ad Under Government Investigation; Finance Minister Calls It “Stupidity”

After a little over four years, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency dropped its ban against Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), allowing them to operate flights to and from Europe from November 29, 2024.

Over the next few days, PIA announced flights to various European destinations, posting the usual promotional imagery, most of which were nothing to bat an eye about. However, on January 10, 2025, they published a rather questionable banner promoting the resumption of service between Islamabad and Paris.

Technically there is nothing wrong with the ad, but the design unfortunately gives the impression that the PIA aircraft is going to crash into the Eiffel Tower. The caption “Paris, we’re coming today” does them no favors either.

I get the feeling this might have been somewhat intentional as all their other advertisements followed a very standard template with the respective city image and accompanying text, while this on the other hand looks like a quickly put-together banner. Maybe they wanted to spark a bit of debate on social media?

They certainly got the attention, whether they asked for it or not. The comments section was unforgiving, most making jokes and references to the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City.

Pakistan government opens investigation into ad for evoking 9/11 imagery

Pakistani’s Fnance Minister, Ishaq Dar, called the advert “stupidity”. According to the Guardian, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also ordered the matter to be investigated.

Dar said, “the prime minister has directed [authorities] to investigate who conceived this ad”.

The airline doesn’t seem bothered by the negative online and political commentary as the banner is still posted across all their social media channels more than 6 days later. It’s surprising that the carrier has not issued a follow-up statement, dispelling any rumors that they may be trying to portray negative imagery.

Featured image: Pakistan International Airlines

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