Ryanair has branded the advertising regulator’s banning of its ad featuring a Britney Spears-style schoolgirl “absurd” and has vowed to keep running the campaign. The press ad was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority on the grounds that it could cause widespread offense because the image linked teenage girls with sexually provocative behaviour. Ryanair has issued a defiant statement branding the ASA as “Monty Pythonesque” and “out of touch”.

The low-cost airline said the ruling was “remarkable even by the absurd standards of the ASA quango” because, Ryanair claimed, the picture featured a fully clothed model. Ryanair added that the image could not be considered offensive because newspapers, both mainstream and tabloid, frequently run pictures of topless models and celebrities “in various stages of undress”. So true! I wonder what ASA was thinking when they banned this quite harmless print ad. Tsk!