Ryanair appeal to a huge minority audience. Since the minority backpacking audience will fly with them despite their questionable approach to air travel or poor taste in advertising, they can effectively get away with offending anybody outside of their target market (i.e. "the rest of us) in the name of brand awareness. Their rude, crude and distasteful approach to advertising does a wonderful job of attracting the attention of World media, meaning that their foul-mouthed sales pitch has a greater chance of landing a larger chunk of their intended demographic. Their method is akin to methods used by spammers; if they send their message to a million people there's likely going to be 100 that might be potential customers. The fact that they'll likely offend the majority of their audience in the process is rather irrelevant.
Despite the widely held opinion that Ryanair are 'Paris Hilton-esque' talentless twats, they do exceedingly well with their strong (and growing) fleet of Boeing 737's - despite the world falling deeper into a global economic crisis. Ryanair is the third largest airline in Europe in terms of passenger numbers and the worlds largest in terms of international passenger numbers.
The latest Ryanair media stunt has Ryanair top-dog Michael O'Leary at a German media conference claiming that their new transatlantic airline will offer first class passengers "beds and blowjobs". Of course the outspoken media whore controversial CEO and his promise of mile high satisfaction was just in the name of drumming up publicity but it begs the question of appropriateness in a new (or any other) market. No doubt his little stunt will earn him the online exposure he so desperately seeks.
On a positive note, O'Leary sensibly notes that their low cost model will not work on longer haul travel - but that won't stop them selling low cost fares for as little as 10 euro in economy. The journey will be subsidised with higher yield business/first class fares.
Note O'Leary sensually pleasuring and biting his pen just prior to the 'beds and blowjob' announcement. Perhaps he's trying to tell us something?
The German interpreter failed to find a translation to the word blowjob but a German friend of mine tells me that it's 'blasen'.
I've seen O'Leary now on a number of occasions further embracing his comment from last week and clutching at what little media airtime the remark has left. Either he's a foul-mouthed Irishman or a marketing genius. It's probably both.
From Ryanair's website (June 20, 2009):
Ryanair's Daniel de Carvalho said:
"We are delighted to see our Dusseldorf (Weeze) media conference being the most viewed video on You Tube's Travel section. Ryanair confirmed at the press conference on 17th June that the proposed transatlantic service will have a very low cost economy cabin with seats priced from £10 one-way, and a very high quality business class, providing better service than BA or Virgin, and the working title for the business class service is 'Beds and Blowjobs'.
Since then it is rumored that the 'Beds and Blowjobs' debate comes up at most management meetings and everyone is cock sure, it would grow from strength to strength.
We are surprised that the translator did not find any German word for 'Blowjobs'. Ryanair's Linguistic Department will offer one free return flight to a destination of your choice, for travel from October to December (including taxes and charges) to the first Ryanair passenger translating 'Blowjobs' into German language".
Better business class service than BA or Virgin?
