Ryanair were (are) socially irresponsible with their ad. What may even be worse is if they did think it through the way you suggest.

I don’t think Ryanair should ignore the ASA, whatever Ryanair or anyone thinks of the ASA. A far smarter approach would be to a) accept the adjudication and b) lodge an appeal. If you win the appeal, resume.

But this is about bums on seats in a cutthroat business. So ends justify means, eh?

Wrong, just wrong.

They made ironic fun of a tired cliché, made ironic fun with a tired cliché. Using a model who is clearly not a schoolgirl (Sallie: go to a Halloween party next year. Count the “schoolgirls”… this IS a cliché).

And the ASA should be ignored. They got this one way wrong…. probably a result of being old, conservative and politically correct.

And think of search engine keywords

I don’t like the ad. I think it’s puerile and in exceptionally poor taste. Unlike the 13 complainants to the ASA, though, I don’t believe it’s indecent. Yet I can understand why 13 people may think so.

Sallie’s point is a good one - the kiddie-porn overtones.

As for my PR disaster point (and I said in FIR #315 that I think it is a PR disaster, not a maybe), that’s mostly to do with the way in which Ryanair is responding to criticism including the ASA adjudication.

Heather, I wouldn’t fly Ryanair by deliberate choice. Yet if Ryanair were the only option, then I guess I would. Does that make me a hypocrite? I don’t know (I don’t think it does), but I would do that only if there really were no other option to travel.

Michael, that Egg story is only getting started. For me the credibility of it is stretched when the bank says the global credit crunch has nothing to do with it. I don’t believe that.

Egg said the 130,000 odd cancelled accounts were due to their enhanced risk, however the overwelming feedback from the cancelled account holders was that Egg made no money out of them becuase they paid off their balance each month.

On one level its an organisation rejecting its customers and on a more sinister utter level corporate hypocracy, from the worlds biggest bank (Citibank) at a time when they need all the friends they can get!

You love the ad. Why else would you have renamed the photo “ryanair-hottie“? On the BBC, it was “Ryanair advert.”

But I digress.

I see nothing wrong with the ad. While cheap fares and illicit sex have gone hand-in-hand since the first charter vacation/holiday, one would have to be all-too-seriously literal-minded to draw a connection here.

Ryanair did perfectly right to ignore the ASA. Pity they didn’t ask the ad agency to draft their response… a copywriter’s dream.

However, the contempt they show to customers by charging for everything - even using the check-in desk - belies the cheap headline prices. That is probably going to end up losing them more business than this daft advert. How many people really just want to pre-book online and walk on with 10kg hand luggage just to get the cheap price (excluding taxes)?

I’d prefer to use Flybe from Southampton, but they stopped the useful Toulouse destination and only start to fly to Perpignan from 1 March. As much as I object to the business strategy of Michael O’Leary, I’ve made a pragmatic decision.

In my view it is time for the other airlines to exploit Ryanair’s weaknesses - including their crass advertising.

Bearing in mind that it ran in national and regional papers, I’d question how much value to put on just 13 complaints from the total readership who would have seen the advert? Especially as my guess would be that it’s down to current concerns about the safety of schoolchildren, and a complete overreation…