Once again proving that there is no such thing as bad publicity, and that any minor crisis can be turned into a publicity opportunity, the people at adult TV channel, Babestation, have been keen to convey their humblest apologies to the good folk of Westport, County Mayo, in the wake of the telephone mix up which saw residents of the town receive phone calls from Babestation customers wishing to communicate with the company's erotically charged girls.
This morning on The Ryan Tubridy show, Steve Richardson, who looks after corporate communications and social media for Babestation, imparted his earnest contrition to the nation.
“We are a responsible media outlet. We want to respond by making a gesture to say that we are not some big corporate animal. We want to come and meet the people, if anybody’s got an issue. Your own minister, Michael Ring, has actually come out and welcomed our action.”
Ah, what a pity Callan's Kicks is on a brief hiatus. What fine material our satirist-in-chief, Oliver Callan, could glean from this unfortunate incident.
Voted Ireland’s best place to live in 2012, and for foodies, home to Ireland’s best seafood chowder, courtesy of the West Bar in Westport, the appeal of the County Mayo town will either be enhanced or diminished later this week (depending on your point of view) by the arrival of a couple of the Babestation girls, dispatched by the company as an olive branch, of sorts, to make up for the misunderstanding.
So, how has all this come about? Well, it seems that some Irish viewers of the adult television channel, which is based in the UK, failed to dial the proper international prefix when calling the on-screen numbers and were routed, instead, to various numbers in Ireland’s favourite town. (For your information, the UK international dial code is +0044)
And Babestation itself? “What is your mission statement?” asked Ryan.
“It’s a free to view adult entertainment channel. Basically, we have a portfolio of girls who we work with, they are empowered, they are very bright, career minded. And we give them a channel to promote themselves in an adult entertainment way.”
Needless to say, viewers, readers, listeners will have different views on whether this type of promotion constitutes “empowerment”, but that’s another day’s work.
“Babestation is not hard-core pornography. It was best described by somebody today as 'the Benny Hill of adult entertainment.'”
Ah, Benny Hill. Well that’s okay, then.
To listen to the full interview, click here.
Photo Credit: Tristan Fewings / Stringer – Getty Images