BERLIN (AFP) — German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck has pressed Irish low-cost airline Ryanair to donate 25,000 euros (40,000 dollars) to a secret police memorial after the carrier used his image in advertising, a press report said Thursday.
The money was to be given to a museum and memorial created in Berlin on the site of a former prison run by the east German secret police force Stasi, the mass circulation daily Bild said.
"Managers who authorise this kind (of advertising) should have the decency to excuse themselve in an appropriate manner," Steinbrueck told the newspaper, while adding that he did not intend to file a formal complaint.
The Irish airline depicted the Social Democrat minister, an ardent supporter of financial rigour, with a conversation bubble which read: "Fly for 10 euros with Ryanair."
Ireland's iconic low-cost carrier recently lost a lawsuit brought by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla after the airline used a picture of their marriage in another ad campaign.
The French first lady donated the 60,000 euros in damages to a French soup kitchen, while the conservative president matched the sum from his own pocket.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
