It sure ain't for the street cred.
So Volkswagen decided to put as much thought into fixing the problem as an emotionally distant rich grandfather would for your birthday present: They sent each car owner a $500 gift card. If that isn't enough, they are also offering free roadside assistance for three years, so maybe the affected parties could arrange to break down all at the same time as payback.
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Thai Airways Pretends A Crashed Plane Doesn't Exist (With Paint)
Scott Barbour/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Back in September of 2013, a Thai Airways plane experienced a landing gear malfunction, sending it skidding off the runway and inflicting 13 people with minor injuries. In the aftermath of the crash, a crew came along and painted over the logos on the plane. Thai Airways claimed that by obscuring their logo, they were saving the face of the airline. Their logic was that if people couldn't tell what carrier had crashed, they wouldn't be afraid of flying with them in the future. This is like a baby dropping your cellphone and then assuming they won't get in trouble if they cover their eyes. And also the cellphone is the size of a plane and is bright purple and gold.
CNN
And why did they use black Sharpie?
This whole process is ridiculous for two reasons. First of all, there was the fact that they were saying these things officially, so everyone knew which company it was anyway, even if they got David Blaine in to somehow make the plane invisible. Second, when people started pointing out on Twitter how stupid painting over the logo was, Thai Airways said they had no choice since it was a policy of their airline alliance, who turned around and basically said Thai Airways pulled this policy out of their butts. Hey, at least they didn't resort to a plane-sized camo-print quilt.
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