Friday, May 25, 2007

Ryanair pulls Kaczynski romance advert


The Polish government threatened to sue Ryanair after an advert made fun of the prime minister’s alleged affair with old Solidarity colleague.

The rumors of an affair (see above front page of Polish tabloid last year) between Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Law and Justice MP Jolanta Szczypinska have been around for sometime. And the supposed love affair was used by the cheap flight carrier Ryanair as the subject for one their characteristically zany advertising posters. IOL reports:

The ad shows the deputy, Jolanta Szczypinska, with Kaczynski under the headline "Are they thinking of a honeymoon?"

A comic book speech bubble shows Kaczynski asking, "Shall we take the government plane?", to which Szczypinska replies: "There's no need, Ryanair guarantees the lowest prices."

Ryanair, which is known for unorthodox publicity campaigns, "must pay for this", Szczypinska fumed on Wednesday.

"I am shocked. This is a scandal," she said in an interview with the daily newspaper Dziennik. "Illegal exploitation of the image of the head of government is a crime."


We rang up Rynair for a comment and they told us that they have now cancelled the advert after the legal threats. Shame.

That the government is suffering from a humor by-pass will not come as a shock. But many might be skeptical of the rumor of the romance. Some think it’s a PR stunt.

The dumbest thing about all this is the government’s willingness to sue all and sundry when being made fun of. A secure, mature government would take the mocking on the chin. A childish administration will throw a tantrum.

Expect more tantrums.

33 comments:

Brad Zimmerman said...

The best part about their responses to little pokes-in-the-eye like this and the potato reference in Die Tageszeitung ...is that they encourage more people to poke them in the eye, rather than not.

Their responses are absurdly predictable. You'd think this government had been tutored by Kim Jong-il.

Anonymous said...

Yes, their response is silly but so is the comparison to North Korea.

And looking at Jolanta's website, I'd guess she has a bit of a crush on Jaroslaw with all the pictures of him there.

Anonymous said...

Dear co-bloggers -
I would rather think PiS & Co. take the Three Archdevils from the bad old partition times as models for treating laesio majestatis cases: the Russian Czar, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Austro-Hungaria. They are so backward-minded, so preoccupied with "history politics" - I wonder if they even know who Kim Jong-Il is.

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Frank Partisan said...

A great leader should have a great libido.

Anonymous said...

Serca nie sluba (the headline in the tabloid above) is an expression which means…dunno….’your heart rules your head’…maybe.

In the context of the story – Jarek nudge, nudge, being ‘gay’ – I don’t really understand it. J Kaczynski getting married would be very good for this government’s image.

Anonymous said...

Why isn't there a Polish equivalent of Bob and Doug McKenzie, eh?

ku-ru-ku-ku-ku-ku-ku-ku

Anonymous said...

Yes the response is silly, but I despise Ryanair's marketing tactics, leaving aside for now their constant fighting of environmental laws. Michael Ryan is the type of businessman who makes a virtue out of petty fighting between rival companies, as well as a man who saw fit to arrange a meeting with neo-fascist PM Jorg Haider to celebrate a new route to Austria, if I recall correctly.
Down with this sort of advertising, I want a return to the days of ads simply stating the brand name in an imposing font, 'BRASSO', 'LARD' or 'GREENHAIGH'S PIES', none of this jokey nonsense. I blame Freud.

michael farris said...

"Serca nie sluba (the headline in the tabloid above) is an expression which means…dunno….’your heart rules your head’…maybe."

Actually it's 'serce nie sługa', literally 'the heart isn't a servant' or in American (maybe)
"(the) heart has a mind of its own" (with apologies to Connie Francis).

I find the less I think of Jarosław's emotional and sexual entanglements the better I feel.

beatroot said...

Typo excluded, you know what I mean....]

And I don't know the song...

alex said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

classic story of a closeted homosexual trying a coverup...

1945ish

Anonymous said...

Being black in Britain is bad for your mental health


There is an epidemic of psychotic illness in those of African and Caribbean origin, so why are we doing nothing to stop it?

Kwame McKenzie
Monday April 2, 2007
The Guardian


I have had problems being a psychiatrist since the first day I worked in the Maudsley hospital. The Maudsley is in south London, and every day I saw more and more young people of African and Caribbean origin developing serious mental illnesses. As a young black man I identified with them, found it disturbing, and vowed to do something about it: so I started research in the area. Unfortunately, that made things worse rather than better; partly because the statistics are so chilling, and partly because of the response to them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2047843,00.html

Sophia said...

Funny because I think this has been exactly the Sarkozy's strategy to stay in the front pages of the media in France. I don't doubt they have marital problems but I think they are exploiting the problems to occupy the headlines. Sarkozy has been for years now, threatening, censoring and protesting through phone calls to some of the media coverage of him and his wife.

Bush does not have to do this because he does schock and awe.

Do you know that scientific media coverage studies have shown that the number of times a Politician name is cited in the press predicts better than any scientific poll the number of votes he is going to get, no matter what the content is. (French blogger and academic Jean Véronis has given us during the campaign for the presidential elelctions multiple accounts on this on his blog: aixtal.blogspot)

This shows that people are not reading the press, they are merely reading the titles and looking at the pictures.

Welcome to a new generation of European Politicians, the People (like celebrities in Hello magazines)

Anonymous said...

(French blogger and academic Jean Véronis has given us during the campaign for the presidential elelctions multiple accounts on this on his blog: aixtal.blogspot)

A nice case of study that is meant to support a conclusion set a priori (hint: look at the way the data normalization is done).

Anonymous said...

Im surprised you could get throught to Ryanair.I once spent 2 hours trying to do this when they lost my luggage on the way to Poznan and more than once got a rude response when I did get through.In the end a baggage handler found the bag and handed it in to them.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you would like to have your image used without payment or permission to advertise the crap services of a man already rich enough to buy and sell you a hundred thousand times over but I wouldn't.

PiS had no choice but to act as they did. The prime minister of a sovereign nation cannot be seen to endorse commercial products -- that's all done behind closed doors.

Anonymous said...

For Ryanair to use this material just represents corporate idiocy or lack of supervision. This firm has nothing to gain by getting involved in Poland’s internal politics and perhaps a lot to loose.

The debate on the government responding to the add has it usual double standards pardon the pun but this add wouldn’t fly in 80% of the countries on this planet without some sort of government response.

One would expect Jaroslaw to have no obligation to reveal his sexual orientation or have his private life used for commercial ads.

Speaking of double standards from the whining leftist liberal elements in the press and media. The other days gay pride parade in Moscow will get a fraction of the media coverage that Poland’s media fabricated crisis over sexual minority rights gets almost daily.

beatroot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
beatroot said...

The other days gay pride parade in Moscow will get a fraction of the media coverage that Poland’s media fabricated crisis over sexual minority rights gets almost daily.

No Jan: it will get much less coverage in POland - but in the it's all over CNN, BBC...etc etc etc

Some very high profile people got ounched and kicked...all on camera. It's all over the place...and a bit reminicent of Poznan, but worse.

Anonymous said...

It is apparent that there is a major difference in the situation sexual minorities face in Russia versus Poland yet the medias coverage is not consistent or proportional. Also a number of countries that have taken an extreme position on gay rights are nearly never mentioned.

Poland’s major transgression is to have the courage to take a stand based on culture and religion that rejects the gay life style as being legitimate and moral, not to be confused with illegal. As it stands Poland has not separate civil life from religious believes. In Poland the society has refused to give it’s stamp of approval or to stay silent in the service of political correctness. Notwithstanding it isn’t illegal to be gay in Poland and shouldn’t be a reason for discrimination.

I don’t care what two consenting adults do in private but I do object to making it mandatory to applaud them.

michael farris said...

"It is apparent that there is a major difference in the situation sexual minorities face in Russia versus Poland yet the medias coverage is not consistent or proportional"

Maybe it's because nobody expects Russia to act civilized towards gay people and (until recently) they expected better of Poland. I know I did.

"Poland’s major transgression is to have the courage to take a stand based on culture and religion that rejects the gay life style as being legitimate and moral"

Where in the bible are same sex committed relationships (as opposed to same sex adultery, prostitution and rape) condemned?

The bible has no more to say about modern gay households than it does about cell phones or the internet.

Let's face it, a big chunk of the Polish electorate is sort of ... ciemni, prymitywni, take your pick of word and several political parties are making hay of that for short term political gain.

On the bright side, pretty much all my students hate Giertych and everything he stands for and his condemnation of gay rights can only help among the younger generation.

Damien Moran said...

BR, did tourraetes Syndrome Parrot commit 'Haggard's law'?

Anonymous said...

Has Tinky Winky flown by RyanAir? Is this the real reason for the Polish government's ban?

michael farris said...

As much as it rankles, I have to point out here that J. Kaczynski and his a) true, true love b) beard (correct answer depends on the reader) are absolutely in the right here. Ryanair has not business or right using the images of living people without their consent.

beatroot said...

Blimey! Image rights! No man. If you are in a public place then you do not own your 'image'. This is starting to sound like 'taking photos steals my soul...'

michael farris said...

So those companies don't need to pay athletes? They can just use any old pictures of them to promote their shoes?

beatroot said...

As long as the advert does not claim that the footballer endorses the product (which would be difficult to prove they are not) then I see nothing wrong.

Nobody would assume that Kaczor was doing the same with Ryanair.

The two should not be compared.

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