Muff miffed over 'cheap shot' in airline's TV ad
Border village is butt of joke again
Mayoral candidate Neal Toye in Muff, Co. Donegal yesterday. Pic: Declan Doherty
Wednesday July 25 2007
A LOW-cost airline has incurred the wrath of tourism bosses by linking a Donegal village with grim images of a British seaside resort in a TV advert to encourage holidays abroad.
Long-suffering Muff, located on the shores of Lough Foyle, close to the Derry border, is referred to in the voiceover for the Jet2 ad which suggests with a hint of incredulity: "A family day in Muff?"
But, as if that wasn't bad enough, the accompanying image of a sleeping grandfather and bored grandson lounging on deckchairs on a deserted, windswept beach was actually filmed on a wet day in Southport on the English coast.
The image is juxtaposed with sunny Malaga to promote cheap flights to sunny foreign destinations.
But it has prompted an avalanche of criticism from tourism promoters and residents in Muff, which recently came in at 19th place on an internet list of the top 22 worst place names in the world.
Muff, whose name derives from a mispronunciation of the Irish 'Magh', meaning plain, has long been the butt of puerile jibes by comedians Graham Norton and Podge and Rodge.
And this time, notwithstanding that it is not in the UK, nor does it have a beach, the main anger once again is that the ad is being seen as "a cheap shot". North West Tourism's Paul McLoone said he would be contacting the airline to let them know the disappointment that was shared by tourism partners. "It was filmed in the UK and if they really wanted a cheap shot at someone they should have picked the name of a destination in the UK.
"I don't know why they brought any attention to Donegal. It is quite unfair and very disappointing for our tourism partners to have cheap shots at high quality tourism destinations such as Muff in Co Donegal," he said.
Tony McLaughlin of Inishowen Tourism slammed the ad as unimaginative and going after a soft target.
"It is sad and it displays a severe lack of imagination when someone has to resort to running down an area.
"They didn't say the Lakes of Killarney or the Ring of Kerry or the Giants Causeway. They picked Muff simply because they like to have a bit of a laugh," he added.
Local mayoral candidate, Neal 'Bomber' Toye said that people would be hard pressed to find entertainment abroad that was as good as the line-up for the local festival which gets underway at the weekend.
"It's a wee bit harsh to pick on Muff when we are in such a beautiful location on the Inishowen peninsula within minutes of magnificent beaches and golfing," he said.
The company has also singled out the County Antrim destinations of Glengormley and Drains Bay in an obvious attempt to chose humorous sounding place names.
Jet2 claimed its ads were a light-hearted attempt to demonstrate how life could be if you took a low cost flight abroad. The UK-based company said Southport was chosen to shoot the scenes for all three ads for economic reasons.
- Anita Guidera
