Business Diary: Credit crunch chroniclers stranded by ash

The volcanic ash cloud has done the world's banks one small favour. Writers Michael Lewis and Vicky Ward both have books out chronicling different aspects of the credit crisis and both had planned trips to Europe this week to promote their tomes, two of the most accessible portraits of the crunch. Sadly, neither has been able to get here due to the travel chaos – so maybe a few less readers will now hear about the banks' behaviour.

Will Constantin's YouTube ban be its downfall?

"Is Constantin Film the stupidest company in the whole world?" asks the GamesBrief blog. Constantin, which made Downfall, about the final days of Hitler, has asked YouTube to take down all those clips of the scene from the film in which the Führer berates his staff, on which wags have changed the subtitles for comic effect. The best of these clips have had millions of views – "the kind of viral marketing that marketers can only dream of", the blog points out. "Only a mind-numbingly stupid company would kill that viral activity stone-dead."

Popcorn might never be the same again

No word on what STV's sale yesterday of Pearl & Dean means for the advertising company's much-loved cinema jingle. Still, if you're worried about the 20-second ditty, composed five decades ago by Pete Moore and entitled "Asteroid", a two-minute version is available on iTunes. Altogether now: pah-pah, pah-pah, pah-pah....

A change of role for the dragons from the den?

What are the Dragons' Den gang up to? Earlier this week, two of the BBC show's millionaire business tycoons, James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne, who have been bad-mouthing each other for weeks, publicly made their peace. And now a leading PR firm is quietly asking around the City for people's views on whether the panellists are seen as credible business commentators. Curious.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk