TV ad makers already getting carried away

Speaking of Aer Lingus and its flotation, there was a snippet which did not make the finance pages this week but which is very topical for existing and potential small shareholders in the aftermath of the recent Eircom a.g.m. and the disillusionment felt by many there over the way its flotation had been marketed. It now transpires that filming of the first television advertisements for the Aer Lingus initial public offering campaign has taken place.

Two points of interest come to mind. First, if no date has yet been set for the flotation and several issues remain to be resolved before it gets off the ground at all, is someone not being a bit premature in filming a campaign? Second, if industry sources are to be believed, the cost of this opening shot indicates a campaign on a par with the now much-criticised £4 million (€5 million) spend to offload Eircom.

In the light of the lessons now learned - i.e. the feeling of a number of small shareholders that they were the victims of a "hard sell" - and borrowing the practice now common when the Government wants to put an amendment to the Constitution without opposition from other parties by way of referendum, why not have a campaign that tells you on the one hand why you should buy Aer Lingus shares and, on the other, why you should not? I know which side of that message I'd like to word...