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‘Yikes’ — PIA’s misplaced advertisement for flights to Paris is worrying the internet

The national carrier resumed flights to France with a 'threatening' post on X, and people are full of jokes.
10 Jan, 2025

Our very own Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is resuming flights from Islamabad to Paris, and unveiled a rather interesting advertisement announcing the news.

In an X (formerly Twitter) post, PIA edited their plane flying right towards the Eiffel Tower, with France’s flag splattered across the sky in a decreased opacity, and let’s just say, the red of the flag next to the iconic landmark with the PIA plane flying head first towards it looks a little problematic.

To make matters even more meme-worthy, the post read, “Paris, we’re coming today.” Very ominous, and not something you’d want to read in an ad for an airline.

Of course, social media users had a field day with the post, with almost everyone questioning PIA’s graphic design choices. Comedian Shehzad Ghias Shaikh questioned if their post was a “threat”, and he wasn’t the only one — another person advised the airline to fire their ad agency.

Other netizens thought the “clown attitude” of the post showed that Pakistan was “waging a war against France”.

We must reassure our French readers that nothing of the sort is happening, it’s just a case of bad design.

Many X users reminded us that this isn’t the first time PIA has posted a questionable ad, and reshared their ad from the 70s that showed the shadow of a PIA plane over the Twin Towers in New York City. You know, the ones that were destroyed during 9/11? While PIA couldn’t have possibly known about the horrific attack, in retrospect the ad isn’t the greatest.

Another person compared it to the iconic Crumble cookies account that posts hilarious memes and reminded PIA that it was the national carrier, questioning how they didn’t see the problem in their post.

Someone urged PIA to “hesitate” before posting content.

The best tweet? Someone who summed up the situation with one word:

Yikes indeed.

Comments

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Laila Jan 10, 2025 02:53pm
Hilarious. PIA should just shut down the flight business and venture into comedy instead. Way to wage a war ever so casually by announcing it with ominous imagery and all. Would love to read about Parisians reactions lol
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Tahmad Jan 10, 2025 03:53pm
It’s time for PIA management and pilot and crew to wake up and make PIA a great Airline again.
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