LANGKAWAI, the Malaysian Restaurant in Baggot Street, Dublin, which is the unofficial can teen of the advertising industry, was a little more subdued than usual this week as its patrons recovered after a hard weekend in Kinsale. As they've done for years, the creative departments of Irish advertising took over the town for a spot of mutual back slapping and some serious expense account spending.

Now that the competition is open to other countries, Irish ads do considerably less well than they used to. One home grown winner was one of the Guinness, black and white, TV ads - the ones that you have to be a Young Person to understand.

The winning one features a moody young man coming out of a bookies and trudging his way home - prompting some people to wonder just how it got past the strict drinks code which tries to ensure, among other things, that alcohol in advertising isn't associated with gambling or all round misery.

This week the advertising code was also on the mind of Mairin Quill, the PD's environment spokesperson. She was objecting to a radio ad for Fiat's dinky little Cinquecento, because she says it promotes speed. The car is nippy but it is a teeny tiny car that seems unlikely to break the land speed record.

If Ms Quill was in the mood to complain, she could have focused on a far more objectionable ad in the same series. In this one a female owner waxes lyrical about her car, saying that it gets a lot of attention from men and her husband even wants to drive it. A man approves of her choice of ear? Well it must be all right then. Plus Ca change.