Truth in advertising: Budget airline Ryanair has been forced to apologise to rival EasyJet's founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, for depicting him with a Pinocchio-long nose and tagging his photo with the caption "EasyJet's Mr Late Again."
The dispute was over EasyJet's decision to stop releasing its records of flight delays. Ryanair contended that EasyJet's founder was responsible for this decision.
An outraged Stelios brought Ryanair to court. Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's high-profile CEO, then apologised because Stelios had nothing to do with the decision to stop publishing on-time statistics.
Ryanair is now publishing full-page adverts of its apology to EasyJet's founder and will pay legal fees and other expenses, which Stelios is donating to charity. And Stelios will be publishing his own adverts in response to Ryanair's apology adverts.
What does all this mean for marketers? First, get your facts straight in every marketing message. Second, don't make things personal.
