Planet Business

Compiled by Laura Slattery

Quote of the Week . . .

"This isn't advertising regulation, it is simply censorship. This bunch of unelected self-appointed dimwits are clearly incapable of fairly and impartially ruling on advertising."

- Ryanair's head of communications, Peter Sherrard, takes the high moral ground against the UK Advertising Standards Authority's request for the airline to withdraw a "hottest back to school fares" advertisement featuring a model with a bare midriff half-wearing schoolgirl-style clothes.

The Numbers. . .

£13.9 billionProfits made by oil firm Shell in 2007, setting an annual record for a UK-listed company. But Shell, whose profits were branded "obscene" by union bosses, chose not to publish its level of oil reserves, worrying analysts concerned about the world's dwindling supply of black gold.

€1,4 billionThe sum that rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel was in profit by at the start of the year, before stock markets turned south and his employer, Société Générale, began to lose €500 million for every 1 per cent drop in share prices.

Good Week . . .

Tony BlairThe former British prime minister and friend of the outgoing US president is very much in demand as an "external thought leader", with Swiss insurer Zurich snapping him up to advise on climate change and other "developments and trends in the international political environment" just a few weeks after investment bank JP Morgan hired him for a similar role.

"Boring" investmentsDull is the new exciting, according to investment house F&C, which is predicting renewed interest in cautious investment products that "incorporate downside protection" and "minimise volatility" (such as its own "not meant to be sexy" multi-manager funds), following the sustained period of heart-racing turbulence on equity markets.

Bad Week . . .

Subprime suspectsIn a Grisham-esque plot twist, the FBI has been called in to investigate 14 companies embroiled in the US subprime mortgage crisis as part of a badge-flashing crackdown on improper lending. Traditional white-collar crimes of accounting fraud and insider trading are a growing threat to the US economy, according to investigators.

Funeral homesDublin's death industry might feel a slight shiver at the thought that there could soon be an EU "scoreboard" on funeral costs, if Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell gets his wish. Welcoming an EU proposal for a consumer market scoreboard, he said he hoped it would give statistical weight to the feeling that Irish consumers are being ripped off even in death thanks to "grossly inflated" funeral costs in the capital.

Quote of the Week 2 . . .

"We will not use television the way Nutella is using it."

- Don't confuse luxury goods group Louis Vuitton with any old hazelnut chocolate spread, says head of marketing Pietro Beccari, as the high-end fashion brand announces that it will advertise on screen for the first time in "rigorously selected" cinemas and cable and satellite channels likely to attract the well-heeled.