Ride-sharing service Uber is currently trying to take over France. As in many areas where the app is trying to expand, French authorities have imposed restrictions and even a €100,000 fine on the company for being an unregulated taxi service. Uber’s response was an poorly thought-out promotion in the city of Lyon where passengers could go for 20-minute rides in cars chauffeured by beautiful ladies.

“Avions de Chasse” means “fighter jets” in French, and is also a colloquial term meaning, more or less, “hot chick.” That’s why it’s the name of an app featuring pictures of and opportunities to meet hot ladies. However, Uber in the southern city of Lyon may not have thought their plan all the way through when they decided to offer 20-minute rides chauffeured by the beautiful fighter jets of Lyon.

Actually, the bigger problem wasn’t offering up the pretty drivers as a promotion. After all, Uber in other cities has done promotions where humans drive around kittens for prospective customers to pet: this is just another type of eye candy. Of course, that’s also the problem: treating the female drivers as promotional items.

The bigger problem was with Uber’s blog post announcing the promotion. Buzzfeed says that the tagline was, “Who says women don’t know how to drive?” It’s perhaps not surprising that as soon as Buzzfeed sent a query to Uber’s California headquarters, this blog post disappeared.

Uber sorry for ‘hot chick’ 20-minute ride promo [CNN] (Warning: auto-play video!)

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