RyanAir vesus "Lunatic Bloggers"

In my Emerging Media class we saw a demonstration of a service that allows companies to monitor blog posts -- the idea being that representatives can contact a blogger, either directly or via a comment, to answer questions or ameliorate concerns. We were all a little dubious, imagining that only a handful of firms would go to the trouble.

As it turns out, upstart RyanAir goes to the trouble. Not to answer questions or ameliorate concerns, mind you, but to insult people.

A guy named Jason Roe found what he thought was a bug on the RyanAir site, and posted it to his blog. Then the following comment appeared:

Ryanair Staff #1 Says:
February 19th, 2009 at 5:25 pm

jason!
you're an idiot and a liar!! fact is!
you've opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they're mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!

This was followed by equally caustic messages from "Ryanair Staff #2" and "Ryanair Staff #3".

You'd think it was just some idiot impersonating the airline, right? Nope. Someone traced the source IP (internet) address and sure enough these came from RyanAir.

The response from the company was even more baffling:

Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion.

It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again. Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel.

Does this seem like a good internet marketing strategy? Would you trust these people with your luggage? I'd hope the answer is no.