Business Diary: The Ryanair talent show

Ryanair has taken some stick for its charity calendars in recent years, featuring as they usually do its female cabin staff in some alluring poses. Still, give the budget airline some credit: this year it is giving people a choice over who should star in the 2011 calendar. Your options are: female crew, male pilots, a selection of pilots or, best of all, the pick of the talent from the scientists at Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre – or, as Ryanair rather unkindly describes them, the nerds.

One born every minute

Charming though he is, David Buik, the ubiquitous media commentator at BGC Partners, is renowned for speaking first and thinking later. His latest gaffe is no exception. Yesterday, he gleefully dispatched an email around the City with a copy of what he claimed was an old BP advertisement bearing the slogan "Bringing oil to America's shores". Very apt – or at least it would have been had the advert not been a hoax, a fact Mr Buik that was forced to communicate in a follow-up email just minutes later.

Americans back BP's Hayward

Tony Hayward may be very unpopular with the White House, but it appears not everyone in America has it in for him. CNBC, the US cable channel that specialises in business, yesterday asked its viewers to vote in a poll on whether Mr Hayward should be forced to quit the chief executive's office at BP. Almost two-thirds of the 1,800 respondents said no – significantly better ratings than BP's man has been getting in British polls, in fact.

Sounds like the perfect holiday

How's this for a bit of brand intertextuality? Pontin's, the holiday camp company, has made a new signing to its team of Bluecoats, the hosts who keep visitors happy. Churchill Insurance's eponymous nodding dog is to spend the summer touring Pontin's parks – and even plans to host a regular half-hour show entitled "Party Time". Who needs expensive foreign holidays with this lot on your doorstep?

businessdiary@independent.co.uk