Ministry of Sound Airline a Hoax

Just two days after Ministry of Sound announced they were going to buy four Ansett planes and create a flying dance club, it turns out their press release was a cheap publicity hoax.

Madison Avenue's Andy Van was implicated in the publicity stunt by M.O.S's Richard Megler in a live interview Wednesday on Triple J. Mergler announced on the national radio network that Andy had already signed on as an inflight DJ.

Andy tells Undercover News he is not impressed. "I am not impressed I was represented in that way. They took the piss out of people who have lost their jobs and have mortgages. I have a mortgage too, I know how hard it is. I was totally unaware that he did radio interviews."

The star of Madison Avenue says he feels sorry for the Ansett staff, ridiculed by the stunt. "I feel very, very much for those people" he said. "I think it is astonishing that upper management let Ansett get to that stage. People say "Andy, you run a small business" but whether it's 3 zeros or 1 zero at the end of the number it's all about adding up".

He told Undercover he knew that Ministry of Sound were going to do an aeroplane pitch but he had know idea what it was about. "I did a photoshoot in a pilots uniform for the album and was told that the photo was going to be used to promote me as the pilot of the compilation".

He does say however that he is surprised people took the story seriously. "It may not have been taken in the spirit it was meant to be taken, in the same way Ministry of Sound projected their logo onto Buckingham Palace, took photos and then used them for publicity. If anyone really thought about it, how could people think a record company could afford four planes. They are like $100m each. I had people calling me thinking it was serious but by then it was already out there. Just like Madison Avenue, we were never meant to be serious either but it was. I run Vicious Grooves Records. I don't believe we would have done a similar thing".

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