Ryanair rapped for misleading ad

BUDGET airline Ryanair has been grounded by the advertising complaints authority for a “250,000 flights, no taxes, fees or charges” email ad which was found to be less than airworthy.

On the ad a list of routes from Dublin was given together with the travel dates applicable to the offer.

One potential customer attempted to book flights to both Carcassonne and Murcia and was unable to do so within the terms of the offer.

He telephoned Ryanair and was informed by staff that the schedules to both his chosen destinations were not available for the applicable periods; he was then informed that the routes were removed from the offer. He considered the advertising misleading and so did the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) which told the advertisers that the ad must not reappear in its current form.

Another ad to get the kibosh featured, in a leaflet, a young boy climbing a window shutter to retrieve his balloon which had floated up to the ceiling.

The complainant considered the scene in the picture to be “very dangerous” and because the brochure had been put through her letter box, she was worried that it might fall into the hands of young children. The complaint was upheld.

A poster and press ad for Unilever — Lynx shower-gel was found to be overtly sexual.

The ad featured a man and two women posed on a leather couch. The women were dressed in lingerie and the man was wearing a pair of jeans with an open belt. There were scratch marks on his naked torso and a coin slot in his abdomen. The man had a smile on his face and a sweat like sheen on his body. The headline of the ad stated “Let the Game Continue. The new cooling, reviving shower gel. Lynx Shock”.

The ASAI received a number of complainants which objected to the suggestive nature of the advertising. Several complainants felt that the women were portrayed as sex objects and the use of sexual imagery to sell products of this type was felt to be inappropriate.

For the guidance of advertisers the ASAI committee pointed out that “while images of women in lingerie were generally acceptable in advertising lingerie, such images were not usually acceptable in the advertising of unrelated products or services”.