COMMERCIAL BREAK: Are We Buying Ryanair's Midlife Makeover?

Some of us are old enough to remember when Angelina Jolie was a wild-child so in love with her brother (her words, not ours, after she accepted her Oscar in 2000) and wearing a vial of Billy Bob Thornton’s blood around her neck.

Now she’s a doting mother, an international superstar and an inspirational ambassador and humanitarian.

How does that relate to the airline business?

Well, European carrier Ryanair appears to be going for the same kind of extreme makeover – and subsequent success, admiration and respect – with its first advertising campaign in 25 years.

The airline broke three new commercials this week that are so decidedly un-Ryanair that you’re almost surprised to see the company’s name and logo show up.

Bombastic CEO Michael O’Leary is not in the spots, nor are there any references to the airline’s sometimes-outrageous fee structure, and certainly no hint of what one publication called Ryanair’s bread-and-butter passenger manifesto of “drunk Brits and American backpackers” taking advantage of low fares.

Instead, the three 20-seond spots – 20 in the U.K., unlike the traditional 15-, 30- and 60-second commercials in the U.S. -- focus on new allocated seating, the ease of booking flights on Ryanair’s new website, and the ability to take a second carry-on bag for no fee.

RICH’S TAKE: You can’t force a reputation change, it has to be earned.

These spots are crisp, clean and no frills – reportedly, to save money, they were all filmed in the same day – but they portray an image of the airline that is hardly in line with reality and current perception.

This is not false advertising. Not even a stretching of the truth. It is simple advertising touting new services the airline has introduced. But, for the moment anyway, it’s like putting lipstick on a pig.

Until Ryanair tackles the issues of its outrageous fees and its sometime-sketchy clientele, this is still Angelina Jolie v1.0 instead of 2.0.

GRADE: C

(Rich Thomaselli worked for 11 years covering advertising and marketing in the travel sector, among others, for Advertising Age).