Travel related publicity stunts

We posted last week about a controversial Girls of Ryanair calendar that features, um, the girls of Ryanair in various semi-naked photographs. Sure, it’s sexist and all that, but at the end of the day, the proceeds go to charity.

But one wonders just how much of this was simply a publicity stunt. Blogs like ours, and even respectable newspapers all carried the story and Ryaniar received a ton of coverage.

As it turns out, Ryanair, and a handful of other Irish/British travel outfitters have been engaged in a dangerous game of advertising one-upmanship over the last few years trying to shock and awe passengers away from each other. The result has been some less-than-savory campaigns which have caused their share of bad press. But as they say in the industry, all press is good press.

Judge for yourself. The Telegraph has put together a short slideshow detailing some of the more notorious campaigns, many of which seem to involve Sir Richard Branson–and at least one of which features his bare ass. Click here to check it out.