There is a certain guilty pleasure in reading about the exploits of high profile individuals, and mud flinging between the big characters at Ryanair and Easyjet are no different.
Take the advertising space purchased by Sir Stelios of Easyjet in this weekend’s papers. That doesn’t come cheap, but instead of using it wisely, the public were treated to cartoons depicting Ryanair’s chief exec, O’Leary, at confession captioned “arrogant” and “the ugly face of capitalism”. Yet another in a long line of digs between the pair.
O’Leary and Stelios as the faces of their respective brands clearly don’t have company image at the forefront of their minds. Slanderous retorts and jibes do nothing to protect, enhance or strengthen the image of their respective companies – which leads us to believe this is nothing more than a case of media narcissism…
Both companies have always struggled with a lack of trust from the public following various attacks on their practice, so acting-out with such a lack of dignity and self-control does nothing to counter the negative image. Where did it all go wrong? Stelios and O’Leary got personal, for a start.
Both have always hounded the limelight and it smacks of a desire for personal celebrity, rather than developing celebrity to enhance company image. Egotistical shows such as this do not appear to ‘put their best foot forward’. After all, we are no longer listening to their key messages, more rubbing our hands together for the next juicy scandal they send our way and the entertaining barrage of insults delivered via the press. Yes, publicity flows whenever the two are at loggerheads but the attention is all so negative. Have you ever heard of the most negative person at work also being the most popular? Me neither. At a very basic level, surely Ryanair’s 200% rise in profits would have been more appropriate for release to the press.
Best keep the battle of egos between two highly successful men behind closed doors because the fact is, the company becomes them.
Image by caribb at www.flikr.com
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