Tigers Anzac Day rip off exposed

[Matthew Chisholm]

Ben Sandilands writes:


Tiger Airways launched a blatant Anzac Day rip off this morning leaving itself open to prosecution under the Crimes Act and by the ACCC.

It announced a special ANZAC Day sale "with more than 30,000 FREE seats" for travel between 1 June and 30 September.

Two problems. The use of the term ANZAC is protected under Australian law from commercial exploitation except under very limited and specific conditions which include the prior approval of the Veterans Affairs department.

And under ACCC rules an advertised free seat or fare means $0.00, not $0 plus airport charges and GST of between $22.08 and $35.13 plus a "convenience fee" of $5.

The ACCC’s rule on domestic air fares and the law in relation to GST prohibit the breaking out of that tax and other sub components of a fare and compel the advertising of the full price of the goods or services being offered to the consumer.

The national president of the RSL, Major General Bill Crews said this morning, “Potentially Tiger is in breach of the act in relation to the protection of the names Anzac and Anzac Day from commercial exploitation".


I note that particularly in this case we are not talking about air fares available for use on Anzac Day, which could have been of benefit in relation to reunions and the commemoration of the day.

The first flights on offer under this Anzac Day sale are not available until June.

The whole purpose of this exercise seems to be to associate the commercial sale of seats for use in a general sales promotion with*Anzac Day and has no proper association with the observances of this day, and this is of considerable concern.

The Minister for Veteran Affairs Alan Griffin is in France in advance of ceremonies marking Anzac Day, but guidance issued by the department is that this is a most serious issue and that approvals for activities which associate themselves with Anzacs or Anzac Day must among other things be directly related to its observance.

All of which makes Tiger Airways Australian managing director Shelley Roberts sound rather grubby.

Roberts spruiks the FREE ANZAC Day sale in the media release saying: "ANZAC DAY (her emphasis) is a special time for Australians to unite for commemorations."

"As Australia’s true low fare airline, we’re thrilled to offer consistently the lowest airfares across the country so Australians can come together or take a well deserved break, more often,” she is quoted as saying.

This crass drivel might pass for typical low grade PR on an ordinary day, but this is about Anzac Day and this effort to cash in on it by the Singapore Airlines controlled token low cost entry in the Australian market is offensive and illegal.

Under the relevant parts of s.4B of the Crimes Act as applied to an Anzac Offence a person can be imprisoned for up to 12 months or fined $6600 or both, and a body corporate can be fined up to $33,000.

Earlier this week a Perth brewery renamed a special brew made to a World War 1 recipe a "Memorial Ale" to avoid infringing the act protecting the word Anzac from commercial exploitation.

Apart from permitted social and fund raising events on the day, the only widespread commercial use of the term Anzac that is allowed is in relation to Anzac Biscuits and they have to conform strictly to the original recipes.

taken from crikey newsletter

[Justin L]

The term "Anzac" has been removed from Tiger's website and now just says "Free Seats". The ACCC inclusive pricing still isn't amended though.

[NickN]

Trust a foreign owned carrier to blatantly disrespect the ANZAC name and tradition. The Australian executives at Tiger in Australia who are involved with this should be truly ashamed of their actions and be called to resign immediately.

The fact that the seats aren't even for use on ANZAC day to help diggers re-unite with old friends or be with family is also disgraceful.

[Sarah C]

Well Tiger got what they want - publicity. That press release in itself is cringeworthy and Sandlilands comments are spot on.

I wonder how many people booked the "free seats" and realised the true cost once they actually booked it.

[Rhys Xanthis]

check out todays jetstar friday frenzy...absolutely insance prices.

if i had a reason to go to melbourne or adelaide for a day i would!

[Montague S]

Originally Posted by NickN

Trust a foreign owned carrier to blatantly disrespect the ANZAC name and tradition. The Australian executives at Tiger in Australia who are involved with this should be truly ashamed of their actions and be called to resign immediately.

The fact that the seats aren't even for use on ANZAC day to help diggers re-unite with old friends or be with family is also disgraceful.

more Australian's disrespect ANZAC day than you could wrap your head around...get over it, just look at the moronic tree-swingers that organise fanatics tours to Gallipoli, that is cringeworthy if I ever saw it.

as for the tradition, its lost and was lost long ago, christ, we name a damn biscuit after the day..your faux outrage is only surpassed by your blatant bias against a foreign carrier.

[Michael Mak]

Originally Posted by NickN

Trust a foreign owned carrier to blatantly disrespect the ANZAC name and tradition. The Australian executives at Tiger in Australia who are involved with this should be truly ashamed of their actions and be called to resign immediately.

The fact that the seats aren't even for use on ANZAC day to help diggers re-unite with old friends or be with family is also disgraceful.

Does people getting drunk in the name of ANZAC counted as 'disrespect'? If so, we got plenty of example locally.

[Andrew P]

Originally Posted by NickN

Trust a foreign owned carrier to blatantly disrespect the ANZAC name and tradition. The Australian executives at Tiger in Australia who are involved with this should be truly ashamed of their actions and be called to resign immediately.

crap, welcome to the real world

a much more important story Krispy Kreme Legal crunchtime: Vo-Vo v Dough-Vo affects more Aussies

http://www.smh.com.au/national/legal...0424-ahnm.html

hope KK wins

[Nigel C]

Originally Posted by Montague S

as for the tradition, its lost and was lost long ago, christ, we name a damn biscuit after the day..your faux outrage is only surpassed by your blatant against a foreign carrier.

For those that don't know, the ANZAC biscuit is more of a symbolic reminder of the army's hardtack biscuits that were commonly 'fed' to the soldiers of the Gallipoli.

[Darren Butterworth]

I had no idea until I heard it on 2GB today, that the SAO is more of a symbol for the Diggers than the ANZAC bikkie, because it is what they actually ate.

SAO = Salvation Army Ordinance

Un-soggy of course