ANCA Cries Foul over Turkish Airlines Super Bowl Ads

WASHINGTON (A.W.)—American commercial broadcast television and radio network CBS’s Super Bowl 50 pregame broadcast on Feb. 7 was sponsored in part by Turkish Airlines. The company used its airtime to feature its media partnership with the upcoming film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” As the “official airline partner” of the $200 million Hollywood production, Turkish Airlines debuted a series of commercials of fictitious ads urging travelers to visit the fictional cities of Gotham City and Metropolis—the settings of the popular Batman and Superman franchises.

.” As the “official airline partner” of the $200 million Hollywood production, Turkish Airlines debuted a series of commercials of fictitious ads urging travellers to visit the fictional cities of Gotham City and Metropolis—the settings of the popular Batman and Superman franchises.
As the ‘official airline partner’ of the $200 million Hollywood production, Turkish Airlines debuted a series of commercials of fictitious ads urging travelers to visit the fictional cities of Gotham City and Metropolis. (Photo: ANCA)

The Turkish Airlines Super Bowl advertisements, which can cost up to $5 million for 30 seconds of air time according to a statement made in 2015 by a CBS network executive, feature cameo appearances by famed Hollywood actors Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.

“Turkish Airlines, which was launched in 1933 as part of Turkey’s Ministry of Defense and is still 49.12 percent officially owned by the Erdogan government, strived mightily to polish an increasingly tarnished Turkish brand by running a series of Batman-themed Super Bowl ads, starring Ben Affleck,” read a part of a Facebook post shared by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“This airline represents a major source of revenue for a government that remains complicit with ISIS, obstructs justice for the Armenian Genocide, illegally blockades Armenia, militarily occupies Cyprus, brutally suppresses the Kurds, jails record numbers of journalists, and violates the human, civic, and religious rights of its own citizens—destabilizing the Middle East and representing a material threat to peace around the world. Flying Turkish Airlines funds a government complicit in ISIS brutality and guilty of both regional aggression and domestic oppression,” read the post.

Affleck is the founder of Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI), an advocacy and grant-making initiative focused on working with and for the people of eastern Congo.
Affleck is the founder of Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI), an advocacy and grant-making initiative focused on working with and for the people of eastern Congo. (Photo: ANCA)

In a separate Facebook post, the ANCA highlighted the fact that Affleck has been an outspoken critic of human rights abuses in the Congo, but is being hypocritical by working for the airline, which is partly owned by the Turkish government. “Affleck is being hypocritical, calling out evil on the one hand, and enabling it with the other. All the while, enriching himself through ties with a government that he knows very well uses Super Bowl ads and movie tie-ins (B’atman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’) to cover up its obstruction of justice for genocide and its escalating domestic repression and regional aggression,” read the post.

Affleck is the founder of Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI), an advocacy and grant-making initiative focused on working with and for the people of eastern Congo. According to the organization’s website, the ECI “envision(s) an eastern Congo vibrant with abundant opportunities for economic and social development, where a robust civil society can flourish.”

The ANCA also shared a series of political parody graphics, highlighting aspects of Turkey and Turkish Airlines not addressed in the Super Bowl advertising campaign.

The ANCA shared a series of political parody graphics, highlighting aspects of Turkey and Turkish Airlines not addressed in the Super Bowl advertising campaign.
The ANCA shared a series of political parody graphics, highlighting aspects of Turkey and Turkish Airlines not addressed in the Super Bowl advertising campaign. (Photo: ANCA)

 

13 Comments

  1. I posted this a month or so ago but I’ll say it again. I was in LA in December and on the metro buses in downtown LA every bus I saw had a Turkish Airlines advertisement on the back. I would have thought with the hundreds of thousands of Armenian-Americans in the LA-area there would have been some action towards this.

    • I saw it in San Diago everywhere and in the airport a few months ago there and was Shocked. This is all stemming from Obama basically picking the turks over Armenia because they obviously can by him a bigger plane than Armenia could and now these guys think they can just stamp Turkey anywhere and we are going to think what (gobble,gobble)? That is Okay? Hell No. I am offended on behalf of My Ancestors. The name of turkey is so saturated with crime hate, and bloodshed, that it has No Place Anywhere in Any Decent Society. Be it Bus or Billboard. Any you know what, that is probably Really unfair of me but you know what else? I really could care less. NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET. I remember the Armenians.

  2. As I have said before on numerous occasions and will say again. No one cares. Not the public and neither the Armenians. I post and repost all sorts of news and NEVER get any recognition. I also have a public access channel and have offered it to NY Armenian organizations to only be turned away or ignored. I do not charge for my services to Armenian organizations. They simply do not care.

  3. ANCA can criticise and shout down Turkish Airlines as much as they like on social media till the cows come home, unfortunately it does not make one iota of a difference.

    The evolution of a small regional airline grew six fold in less than 10 years to become Europe’s best airline for five years in a row to a global brand and now becoming a Harvard Business School case study, the HBS case study could not have come at a more opportune moment to debunk the ANCA parody which is Juvenile at best. THY records speak for themselves:

    http://www.dailysabah.com/tourism/2016/01/12/turkish-airlines-increases-passengers-by-118-percent-in-2015-eyes-724-million-in-2016

    http://www.dailysabah.com/money/2016/02/01/turkish-airlines-signs-deal-with-boeing

    http://www.dailysabah.com/money/2016/02/10/turkish-airlines-success-becomes-case-study-at-harvard-business-school

    http://www.dailysabah.com/nation/2016/02/08/turkish-airlines-thy-flight-attendants-save-21-month-old-toddlers-life-with-first-aid-procedures

    • Yes T,Airlines is doing very well now with loundered money & govt massive support,illegal drug trafficking money …lets wait a little bit & see once ISIS oil money & contribution from terror supporting Saudi & Qatar financing runs out…then we can talk about top 20 economic powers of Sultan Eshdoghan….

    • THY has achieved growth through cheap airfares and an advertising blitz. That’s it. Otherwise, there’s nothing special about them.

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