Somebody hire a PR pro… please..

In the worst PR move since Pat Kenny first used the phrase “squatters’ rights“, Aer Lingus have cancelled around 100 flights book by opportunistic types who found business class seats to the US on sale for €5.

Above and beyond issues of contract law or the lack thereof, you’d wonder why they couldn’t just bite the bullet and turn it into a decent gesture rather than shooting themselves in their PR department’s foot.

In the name of pure comic timing, it was Pat Kenny himself that made that suggestion this morning. While politely ignoring his own little faux pas against the little people earlier in the week.

¡Viva España!

More good news from Spain - the country where they studied women’s clothing sizes in high street shops, proved it’s all nonsense, and have now sat down with the major retailers to start making sense of such things!

There are now more women than men in the Spanish cabinet. The fact that in this supposed age of equality that shouldn’t be news can for now be ignored. The fact that we in Ireland are so far down the list of the percentage of women in parliament is something that can’t be. But is.

I wonder how long it would take us to achieve that same level of representation? Another 50 years? Longer?

And perhaps a better question: How many of those nine women in cabinet are named Maria?

[Answer: One]

In related news, Berlusconi’s first act since his election seems to have been to pour scorn on this new cabinet of women. I’m going to hope it’s a case of misinterpretation. What are the chances?

PD’s new leader is…eh… the other guy?

The ‘other’ leadership ‘race’ is over, and Ciarán Cannon has been elected by a very slim margin as the next leader of the Progressive Democrats.

Maybe this shouldn’t come as a surprise to me, or anyone, but it does. Mostly I feel bad for Fiona O’Malley - though some might argue we should all feel worse for poor Ciarán who has, to say the least, a tough time ahead of him.

It speaks volumes that this isn’t even the top story on the news today. I know the PDs could never truly be compared to FF in terms of ’significance’, if only for mathematical reasons, but considering the whitewash of all media outlets last week over a leader who didn’t even need to be ‘elected’ and who won’t take over (officially at least) for another few weeks, it’s fairly impressive that they just can’t get the air time.

It will be interesting to see what plans Cannon has to bring the PDs back to life.

Possibly time to try the tactics of one Victor Frankenstein.

Best ad I’ve seen in a while

You may have noticed that Henri Hippo has made a glorious return thanks to the nice people at UlsterBank who believe in getting them young! :0)

Crucially, their ad campaign (featuring newly re-drawn Henri) focuses on the olden days when Henri’s (presumable) grandfather was the main man.

My slogan of choice says it all - “Remember when all you wanted in life was a Sodastream?”

Yes dagnammit, I do, and now I want one all over again…