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Bookies airline ad a PR winner


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11 December 2008

Bookies airline ad a PR winner

Irish bookmakers Paddy Power have just pulled off a crafty PR gamble by hitting the headlines with a newspaper ad inviting punters to bet on the next airline to go into administration.

The audacious ad, which featured the latest odds of going bust for a selection of airlines including Ryanair, BA and EasyJet, was promptly banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The advertising watchdog ruled that the different odds suggested some airlines were more at risk of going into administration than others and concluded that the ad unfairly discredited those businesses.

But Paddy Power still ran out clear winners by demonstrating that punters were prepared to bet on anything, with the company standing to feed off the controversy the advert has precipitated.

The company would have been assured of a dead cert by simply following a PR formula that works time and again- that of creating a campaign knowing it would be banned and thereby cueing a wave of media interest.

And sure enough, the Advertising Standards Authority was right to ban the ad as it had the potential to inflict damage on the reputation of airlines that are already concerned about plummeting passenger numbers and share prices.



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