Ryanair defends advert featuring 'Comical Ali'

Ryanair last night defended an advertisement featuring Iraq's former information minister Mr Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf in an advertising…

Ryanair last night defended an advertisement featuring Iraq's former information minister Mr Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf in an advertising campaign against rival airline EasyJet.

Ryanair are using an image of Mr Said al-Sahhaf, infamous for his overly-optimistic announcements against coalition forces during the Iraq war, to portray him as a spokesman for EasyJet.

He is depicted as saying "We're winning the war!", "We're beating the Americans!" and "EasyJet have the Lowest Fares!"

The captions play on Mr Sahhaf's insistence during the war that US troops were being defeated, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, most famously the appearance of a US tank on a Baghdad street just behind him.

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The advertisement is one of five currently appearing in British newspapers to "eliminate the idea that EasyJet is a low-cost carrier", says Ryanair.

EasyJet spokesman Mr Toby Nicholl criticised Ryanair's approach.

"It is in slightly bad taste, especially given that the guy might have killed himself," he said.

"The war is a very serious business, and maybe not the sort of thing to joke about." As for the specific claims, Mr Nicholl said that EasyJet never claimed to be cheaper than its rival, only that it served more centrally located airports.

When asked if they thought the advert featuring Mr Sahhaf - who became known as Comical Ali - was in bad taste, a Ryanair spokeswoman said "absolutely not".

"It's not in bad taste. Wherever we've run these ads we've had a fantastic response," she said.

"The feedback has been incredible. People are saying it's novel and timely," she added.

The five advertisements, one of which uses the word "bullocks" to describe claims that EasyJet offers the lowest prices, will be run "primarily in the UK" over a number of days and weeks.

Ryanair would not say if the adverts would also be run in Ireland.

Reports that the public did not avail of Ryanair's one million free seats offer were also dismissed by the company last night.

"Bookings broke all records - over 520,000 passengers availed of the free seats," said a spokeswoman.

The Guardian reported yesterday that 480,000 seats had remained unclaimed.

However, Ryanair said an extension of the sale to today was in response to "customer requests to extend the booking period".