“I am not sure we care about people pissing themselves in flight. It is a new revenue stream. Most smell like urine anyway.” Stumbled upon this on Twitter today, purportedly from Ryanair:
First off, is it real or brandjacking? A site called Travelution claims they’ve been told by Ryanair that it’s for real. In my former life as a journo I would have called Ryanair to find out. I’ll leave that for someone else to do on this occasion and we will talk theoretically.
If it’s real (and I simply don’t know at this stage) then is this good digital PR? If this gets people talking and engaging then is it doing its job? Well, the company does have a bit of a reputation for being cheeky and so a controversial approach would be in keeping with that. But if you lay into your customers then are you really doing yourself a favour? So many questions.
I guess at the heart of it is the question of engagement. If they (whoever “they” are) create something that people comment on, interact with (in this case “controversial” tweets) and pass on, then it works. If it loses them business then it backfires. (Of course if this is brandjacking they may want to address it.)
The antihero isn’t a new concept. Maybe it just got an update.
(Of course this could all be a windup and nothing to do with Rynair at all.)
