A campaign mounted on Change.org has called on Delta Air Lines to pull a controversial in-flight advertisement from the National Vaccine Information Center. Elyse Anders, a Texas mother of two, began the campaign.
Anders maintains, “The NVIC is a dangerous anti-vaccine group masquerading as a neutral and informative source.” In contrast, The Center’s website refers to the group as “a national charitable, non-profit organization founded in 1982 dedicated to reducing vaccine injury and deaths through public education.”
Part of that education, apparently, consists of running ads on commercial airplanes. And that’s what has Anders upset. In a prepared statement she contends, “The ad plays down the seriousness of influenza, a potentially deadly infection, which causes thousands of deaths in the US each year and millions of deaths worldwide.” She says the ad encourages people to visit the NVIC’s website “where they are met with a clear and dangerous anti-vaccine message.”
She continued: “Airing this ad on crowded flights during flu season is incredibly irresponsible Delta can—and should—do better.”
A spokesperson from the National Vaccine Information Center was unavailable for immediate comment.
Delta Corporate Communications General Manager Chris Kelly Singley tells Cheapflights the carrier is not pulling the ad “at this time,” adding “the programming will be discontinued at the end of November, as scheduled.”
That, however, doesn’t mean the airline isn’t making changes. In a prepared statement, Delta says, “Although the views represented in Lifestyle 365 do not necessarily match those of Delta, we recognize that we have a responsibility to our customers to ensure that all programming is relevant, accurate and does not lend itself to interpretation. Therefore, we have changed our internal review processes and procedures to help ensure that submitted content is vetted differently going forward.”
What do you think about in-flight ads concerning hot-button social issues? Should airlines run them?
Story by Jerry Chandler
