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2010-10-02 03:40:23
By Damien McGuinness BBC News, Riga
The girl group Olialia Babes, part of the Lithuanian blonde project The Olialia
Babes girl band are part of the "blonde" project
A Lithuanian company plans to set up a holiday island in the Maldives run
entirely by blondes - the latest project in a growing blonde movement in the
Baltics. But how legitimate is this latest sign of Baltic blonde ambition?
What do you call a blonde who runs a business? A dab hand at marketing, if she
comes from Lithuania.
Blondes in the Baltics have had enough of the jokes about being dumb. Now they
want to show they are smarter than the gags make out, with a growing blonde
business empire.
The Lithuanian company Olialia, pronounced "ooh-la-la", is setting up a holiday
resort in the Maldive islands.
The firm plans to pull in the tourists by employing only blonde staff, and
offering direct flights to the island crewed entirely by blondes, including the
pilots.
Olialia is run and staffed by blonde women, and already operates in 75
different business sectors, making products from computer software and food
products to pop music.
'Racist' idea?
Start Quote
Giedre Pukiene
When women with dark hair work here, they are surrounded by all these beautiful
blondes, so eventually they end up going blonde too
End Quote Giedre Pukiene Managing director, Olialia
Olialia's blonde managing director, Giedre Pukiene, says she wants to break the
stereotype that blonde women are less intelligent.
"Our girls are very smart and they have degrees," she says.
"All of them want to do something with their lives. They have lots of business
ideas."
The project was officially unveiled this weekend at a party with a blonde dress
code, in a new nightclub in Vilnius opened by Olialia. But the resort,
scheduled to be opened in 2015, has been heavily criticised.
When it was announced on the Maldivian news website "Minivan" in September,
many readers condemned it as discriminatory by potentially excluding non-white
Maldivians.
"This is racist and should not be allowed in the Maldives," wrote one reader
identified as Ablo.
Local laws could make things difficult as resorts in the Maldives are required
to hire at least 50% local staff.
In Lithuania itself, which is a member of the EU, there is the question about
whether stipulating blonde hair as criteria for a job applicant contravenes EU
employment laws. Would older women with grey hair or men be eligible for a job?
'Selling sex'
Giedre Pukiene says her company does not discriminate and welcomes all
applicants, no matter what their gender, age, ethnicity or hair colour.
"But we find that when women with dark hair work here, they are surrounded by
all these beautiful blondes, so eventually they end up going blonde too," she
said.
Ad for Olialia's own-brand cola Critics say the attempts to portray blondes as
super-intelligent in fact just objectify them
Other critics call the company's entire marketing strategy sexist. They fear
that using cliched sexual images of blondes to sell products simply confirms
negative stereotypes.
"It's clear they are not selling the idea that blondes are clever," says
Latvian journalist Sanita Jemberga, herself brunette.
"They are selling the idea that blondes are sexy, because sex sells. They have
found their unique selling point, which is Baltic women and sex."
Stag party culture
All the company's products are advertised using images of sexy blonde women in
improbably intellectual situations.
An ad for Olialia's own-brand cola, for example, shows glamorous high-heeled
blonde scientists concocting rather unlikely-looking laboratory experiments to
make the drink.
Another ad shows a board meeting of blondes, who are applying make-up while
discussing corporate strategy.
Whether the PR campaign is offensive or simply cheekily ironic, it does appear
to be working.
A view of the Maldives The Maldives is a chain of nearly 1,200 islands
Olialia says it expects to double its annual net profit to $10m ( 6m) this
year, and claims that over 80% of Lithuanians recognise the brand.
Olialia's growing business is just one sign of a bizarre blonde movement in the
Baltics which describes itself as liberation from stereotypes for blonde women.
In May, a two-day blonde festival was held in the Latvian capital Riga to cheer
up a country hit hard by the economic crisis.
The event's organiser, Marike Gederte, who is CEO of a business and president
of the Latvian Association of Blondes, told the BBC that the annual festival,
which includes parties, a concert and a march of blonde women through Riga, is
meant to prove that blondes can be independent and show initiative.
But judging from the over-excited reaction of some male tourists in Riga,
female emancipation wasn't necessarily the first thing that sprang to mind.
One young man visiting on a stag weekend was detained by police after drunkenly
stripping at a concert of blonde women in the Old Town.
The Baltic blonde movement is certainly attracting attention. But it may also
end up undermining the region's attempts to pull in more sedate tourists and
shake off its rowdy stag party image.