The worst week yet for Ryanair's ad people?
January 31, 2008
January 30: The Advertising Standards Authority tells Ryanair to withdraw a typically subtle piece of creative featuring a model in school uniform and the headline 'HOTTEST' (underneath: "...back to school fares").
"Censorship!" cries Ryanair, apparently outraged by the idea that a regulator should censor inappropriate material, rather than just crying "ooh, I say!" and moving on.
Januray 31: French president Nicolas Sarkozy and implausible girlfriend Carla Bruni sue Ryanair for using an unauthorised picture of them in a newspaper advert.
Sarkozy goes after a 'symbolic' single euro, but Bruni wants the slightly more literal figure of half a million.
Two in a row - and there's still time for Ryanair to complete the hat trick.
Internet-age consumer power is supposed to have overturned PT Barnum's 'there's no such thing as bad publicity' adage; if so, nobody told Michael O'Leary.
Nathan Midgley, web producer
Nathan Midgley
Martin Couzins
