Singapore Girl
Encyclopedia
Singapore Girl is a consistent visual advertising
slogan
applied to depictions of stewardesses
of Singapore Airlines
(SIA) dressed in the distinctive "Sarong
Kebaya
" SIA uniform since 1972 and remains a prominent element of SIA's marketing
.
Singapore Airlines' hospitality and cabin service has been recognised with awards from magazines, travel and tourism industries, including the 'World's Best Cabin Crew Service' by the Business Traveller Asia-Pacific Awards for 17 consecutive years. The long running campaign since its inception, emphasises these service aspects, featuring bona fide SIA stewardess.
(MSA), when the airlines of Malaysia and Singapore were still joined together in developing and expanding an intercontinental network. The "Sarong Kebaya" uniform was first introduced by MSA and worn by the flight stewardesses and was later developed to become the prominent symbol of Singapore Airlines' corporate image. The original branding was developed by Ian Batey.
Malaysia-Singapore Airlines ceased operations on 1 October 1972 and Singapore Airlines took over as its successor. Singapore Girl was coined in 1972 when Pierre Balmain
, a French
haute couture
designer, was hired by Singapore Airlines to construct and update the Malay "Sarong Kebaya
" as part of the cabin crew's uniform. Since then, the uniform has gained worldwide recognition as part of SIA's recognizable signature branding.
Since 1972, the image of the Singapore Girl has appeared in advertisements in almost all media forms and promotions across the world.
and brand
for Singapore Airlines together with the slogan - "A Great Way To Fly". The Singapore Girl is said to engender "Asian values and hospitality" and has been described as "caring, warm, gentle, elegant and serene".
A wax figure
of the Singapore Girl was created and shown at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum
in London
in 1994, as the first figure to represent a commercial undertaking. This sculpture was sent to the Delta Air Lines
shuttle concourse at LaGuardia Airport
in New York City
in 1995.
In March 2004, the Singapore Girl won the Outstanding Contribution to Tourism Award for the 18th Singapore Tourism Board (STB)'s Tourism Award.
Recently the Singapore Girl has been seen in television commercials promoting Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER
Business Class and the Airbus A380
whose maiden commercial voyage to Sydney was made on 25 October 2007.
, India
, Indonesia
, Japan
, Korea
and Taiwan
to minimise language barriers between cabin crew and travellers.
About 10% of applicants of each recruitment drive are successful and sent for training on their first steps to becoming a "Singapore Girl". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5sGKR6NJBw)
Some of the strict rules and regulations for the crew include:
Although the uniform of the Singapore Girl has remained largely unchanged, the uniform for male cabin crew was updated on 30 June 2008. All male cabin crew will wear the same distinctive navy blue suits to complement the Singapore Girl's cobalt blue Sarong Kebaya with ranks differentiated by the colours of their ties.
The four colours of the ties that distinguish the male cabin crew:
This update replaces the previous uniform consisting of business jackets and grey trousers, with colour of the jackets distinguishing the ranks of the male cabin crew:
In April 2001, the shoes were replaced by Pierre Balmain-designed safety shoes, in light of safety reviews after the Singapore Airlines Flight 006
crash where stewardesses complained of missing sandals.
- apart from the inaccuracy of the term "Girl", the concept has been accused of being a stereotype
of Asian women as being desirable
and subservient to white males. However, the marketing concept is unlikely to be replaced altogether in any future marketing campaigns:
On 16 April 2007, New York-based advertising agent TBWA Worldwide beat two other short-listed candidates, DDB Worldwide
and Publicis
, to become SIA's new principal advertising agency. The contract is worth S$
50 million per year over the following five years, making it TBWA's largest win since it started operations in Asia
in the late 1990s. The change does not affect SIA's buying media agency, which is presently MEC.
Although the carrier's branding strategy is expected to adapt to the new times, SIA has promised to retain the Singapore Girl and her traditional uniform.
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
applied to depictions of stewardesses
Flight attendant
Flight attendants or cabin crew are members of an aircrew employed by airlines primarily to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers aboard commercial flights, on select business jet aircraft, and on some military aircraft.-History:The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar...
of Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines Limited is the flag carrier airline of Singapore. Singapore Airlines operates a hub at Changi Airport and has a strong presence in the Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and "Kangaroo Route" markets...
(SIA) dressed in the distinctive "Sarong
Sarong
A sarong or sarung is a large tube or length of fabric, often wrapped around the waist and worn as a kilt by men and as a skirt by women throughout much of South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa, and on many Pacific islands. The fabric most often has woven plaid or...
Kebaya
Kebaya
A Kebaya is a traditional blouse-dress combination worn by women in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Burma, Singapore, southern Thailand. It is sometimes made from sheer material and usually worn with a sarong or batik kain panjang, or other traditional woven garment such as ikat, songket with a...
" SIA uniform since 1972 and remains a prominent element of SIA's marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
.
Singapore Airlines' hospitality and cabin service has been recognised with awards from magazines, travel and tourism industries, including the 'World's Best Cabin Crew Service' by the Business Traveller Asia-Pacific Awards for 17 consecutive years. The long running campaign since its inception, emphasises these service aspects, featuring bona fide SIA stewardess.
Origins
The iconic images and branding of the Singapore Girl was first established in 1968 during the era of Singapore Airlines' predecessor, Malaysia-Singapore AirlinesMalaysia-Singapore Airlines
Malaysia-Singapore Airlines came into being in 1966 as a result of a joint ownership of the airline by the governments of Malaysia and Singapore. The airline ceased operations after 6 years in 1972 when both governments decided to set up their own national airlines...
(MSA), when the airlines of Malaysia and Singapore were still joined together in developing and expanding an intercontinental network. The "Sarong Kebaya" uniform was first introduced by MSA and worn by the flight stewardesses and was later developed to become the prominent symbol of Singapore Airlines' corporate image. The original branding was developed by Ian Batey.
Pierre Balmain
Pierre Alexandre Claudius Balmain was a French fashion designer. Known for sophistication and elegance, he once said that "dressmaking is the architecture of movement."...
, a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
haute couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
designer, was hired by Singapore Airlines to construct and update the Malay "Sarong Kebaya
Sarong
A sarong or sarung is a large tube or length of fabric, often wrapped around the waist and worn as a kilt by men and as a skirt by women throughout much of South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa, and on many Pacific islands. The fabric most often has woven plaid or...
" as part of the cabin crew's uniform. Since then, the uniform has gained worldwide recognition as part of SIA's recognizable signature branding.
Since 1972, the image of the Singapore Girl has appeared in advertisements in almost all media forms and promotions across the world.
Global Icon
The Singapore Girl has become a visual trademarkTrademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
and brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
for Singapore Airlines together with the slogan - "A Great Way To Fly". The Singapore Girl is said to engender "Asian values and hospitality" and has been described as "caring, warm, gentle, elegant and serene".
A wax figure
Wax figure
A wax sculpture is a sculpture made in wax. Often these are effigies, usually of a notable individual, but there are also death masks and scenes with many figures, mostly in relief....
of the Singapore Girl was created and shown at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum
Wax museum
A wax museum or waxworks consists of a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1994, as the first figure to represent a commercial undertaking. This sculpture was sent to the Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
shuttle concourse at LaGuardia Airport
LaGuardia Airport
LaGuardia Airport is an airport located in the northern part of Queens County on Long Island in the City of New York. The airport is located on the waterfront of Flushing Bay and Bowery Bay, and borders the neighborhoods of Astoria, Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. The airport was originally...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1995.
In March 2004, the Singapore Girl won the Outstanding Contribution to Tourism Award for the 18th Singapore Tourism Board (STB)'s Tourism Award.
Recently the Singapore Girl has been seen in television commercials promoting Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER
Boeing 777
The Boeing 777 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet and is commonly referred to as the "Triple Seven". The aircraft has seating for over 300 passengers and has a range from , depending on model...
Business Class and the Airbus A380
Airbus A380
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world. Due to its size, many airports had to modify and improve facilities to accommodate it...
whose maiden commercial voyage to Sydney was made on 25 October 2007.
Recruitment
As part of efforts to build the image of the "Singapore Girl", the airline runs a rigorous training program for cabin and flight crew. The airline's repute, and the resulting prestige of the job has allowed it to be highly selective during its recruitment process as it receives numerous applications locally and from around the region. Singapore Airlines used to recruit only Singaporeans and Malaysians as cabin crew, but since 1995, in line with its global expansion, recruitment extended to other countries such as ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
to minimise language barriers between cabin crew and travellers.
About 10% of applicants of each recruitment drive are successful and sent for training on their first steps to becoming a "Singapore Girl". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5sGKR6NJBw)
Some of the strict rules and regulations for the crew include:
- The airline requires stewardesses and stewards to color their hair black or dark brown. The airline does not allow for stewardesses or stewards to use highlightsHair highlightingHair highlighting/lowlighting refers to changing a person's hair color, using lightener or haircolor to color strands of the hair in varying sizes. There are four basic types of highlights: foil highlights, hair painting, frosting, and chunking. Highlights can be done in natural or unnatural colors...
. Acceptable shades of hair colours are black or dark brown. Stewardesses with long hair are to coil their hair into bunsBun (hairstyle)A bun is a type of hairstyle, typically worn by women, where the hair is pulled back from the face, twisted or plaited, and wrapped in a circular coil around itself, typically on the back of the head or neck. They can either be secured with a hairpiece, a hairnet and bobby pins. They may be...
or French Twists. Stewards are to sport short hair above their collar lines and sideburns no longer than the ear lobes. FringesFringe (hair)Fringe are a shaped cutting of the front part of the hair so that it is combed forward and hangs or curls over the forehead. A classic fringe is cut fairly straight at or above the eyebrows, but fringes can also be ragged or ruffled, spiked up with hair gel, swept to one side or the other, and...
(bangs) of Stewards do not touch eyebrows. - No fanciful, dangling earrings allowed. Only studs or pearls. No chains and necklaces allowed. Only simple bracelets and rings can be worn. Only small and simple watches can be worn.
- A spare kebaya must be brought for every flight, even short one-hour flights.
- Safety shoes, or covered sandals must be worn during takeoff and landing. At other times, she should wear the batikBatikBatik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.Javanese traditional batik, especially from...
slippers. - Toenails must be of the bright red colour prescribed by the company. If her toenails are not painted, stockings must be worn to substitute for the non red toenails.
- Eyebrows must be shaped, and cannot be the fake drawn-on or tattooed types. Eye shadow must be of the color prescribed by the company - either blue or brown, depending on skin tone.
- Lipstick colour must be among the few shades of bright red prescribed by the company. Pink or plum colors are not allowed.
- Nail polish must be of the bright red colour prescribed by the company. Nails should not be chipped.
Uniform
There are four Kebaya colors that represent the ranking of the Singapore Girls:- Blue – "Flight Stewardess"
- Green – "Leading Stewardess"
- Red – "Chief Stewardess"
- Burgundy - "In-Flight Supervisor"
Although the uniform of the Singapore Girl has remained largely unchanged, the uniform for male cabin crew was updated on 30 June 2008. All male cabin crew will wear the same distinctive navy blue suits to complement the Singapore Girl's cobalt blue Sarong Kebaya with ranks differentiated by the colours of their ties.
The four colours of the ties that distinguish the male cabin crew:
- Blue Stripes - "Flight Steward"
- Green Stripes - "Leading Steward"
- Red Stripes - "Chief Steward"
- Purple Stripes - "In-Flight Supervisor"
This update replaces the previous uniform consisting of business jackets and grey trousers, with colour of the jackets distinguishing the ranks of the male cabin crew:
- Light Blue - "Flight Steward"
- Sky Blue - "Leading Steward"
- Navy Blue - "Chief Steward"
- Grey - "In-Flight Supervisor"
In April 2001, the shoes were replaced by Pierre Balmain-designed safety shoes, in light of safety reviews after the Singapore Airlines Flight 006
Singapore Airlines Flight 006
Singapore Airlines Flight 006 was a scheduled passenger flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Los Angeles International Airport via Chiang Kai-shek Airport in Taiwan...
crash where stewardesses complained of missing sandals.
Criticisms
The Singapore Girl marketing concept has been criticized as being sexistSexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
- apart from the inaccuracy of the term "Girl", the concept has been accused of being a stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
of Asian women as being desirable
and subservient to white males. However, the marketing concept is unlikely to be replaced altogether in any future marketing campaigns:
On 16 April 2007, New York-based advertising agent TBWA Worldwide beat two other short-listed candidates, DDB Worldwide
DDB Worldwide
DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc., known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group Inc, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies...
and Publicis
Publicis
Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and communications company, headquartered in Paris, France. It is one of the world's three largest advertising holding companies . Its current president is Maurice Lévy. Publicis Groupe S.A...
, to become SIA's new principal advertising agency. The contract is worth S$
Singapore dollar
The Singapore dollar or Dollar is the official currency of Singapore. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively S$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
50 million per year over the following five years, making it TBWA's largest win since it started operations in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
in the late 1990s. The change does not affect SIA's buying media agency, which is presently MEC.
Although the carrier's branding strategy is expected to adapt to the new times, SIA has promised to retain the Singapore Girl and her traditional uniform.
External links
- The Singapore Girls, Audio reportage by Jayne Clark of USA TodayUSA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
in FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
format.