Ryanair taught a valuable lesson?

Ryanair has used a cartoon image of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on its Italian website to promote its services.

The cartoon Berlusconi is picture clutching a copy of Ryanair's 2012 calendar featuring a picture of some of its air hostesses wearing bikinis with the message: "Dear Silvio, another chance to escape with Ryanair".

Ryanair is well aware of the value of using the image of European statesmen to endorse its products. The airline was reported to have profited enormously from the publicity it gained after being taken to court by Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni after it featured a picture of the couple prior to their wedding.

Ryanair was ordered to pay €60,000 by a court in Paris after it found that the airline unlawfully used a photograph of the couple with a caption next to Bruni's head reading "With Ryanair, my whole family can come to my wedding." However the resulting publicity after the story was picked up by newspapers across Europe was estimated to be of far greater value than the damages.