{"id":88733,"date":"2013-07-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelstartblg.wpenginepowered.com\/travelstart-response-to-brendan-seery\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T13:51:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:51:24","slug":"travelstart-response-to-brendan-seery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/travelstart-response-to-brendan-seery\/","title":{"rendered":"When The Media Throws Onions At You, Make Onion Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"

We recently had the displeasure of being the subject of Brendan Seery\u2019s somewhat searing Saturday Star newspaper column Orchids & Onions<\/em> (published 13 July 2013). In his headline grabbing opinion piece ironically titled \u201cSex, lies and bogus headline-grabbers\u201d, Seery picks apart our recent \u201cMile High Club<\/a>\u201d study with the inaccuracy of a Harold Camping End of Times prediction. And it seems we\u2019re not the first website to fall victim to Brendan\u2019s ruthless pen. A 2OV post from 2010 confirms this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Click to expand the Sunday Times front page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Admittedly his gripes seem more directed at reckless journalists than Travelstart, but we couldn\u2019t help but feel we were the unsuspecting recipient of a few stray Brendan bullets as he uses our survey as a vehicle for his pro journalism ethics rant.<\/p>\n

However, in the spirit of transparency we\u2019ve responded to Brendan\u2019s misrepresentations that include allegations like \u201cAdd a bit of sex and you can virtually guarantee that any lie you put out to punt your brand will be regurgitated unquestioningly by our media.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Click to expand Brendan Seery’s column<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the survey results were meant to spark some tongue-in-cheek debate among South Africa\u2019s travelling public, the conducting of the research handled by our in-house marketing team was taken with the utmost seriousness.<\/p>\n

We ran the \u201cAir your Dirty Laundry\u201d survey in March and April 2013. The survey asked a total of 16 questions of which 3 were demographic based questions (age, gender & province). The aim of the survey was to get an understanding of the South African traveller’s in-flight habits, so the questions covered a range of interesting subjects including the Mile High Club. We broadcasted the survey to our community through several online channels, including our substantial newsletter database and social media following.<\/p>\n