Scantily clad women ensure media coverage: Richard Branson

SYDNEY - British tycoon Richard Branson said Friday that having scantily clad women at product launches ensured media coverage.

The head of the airlines-to-banking Virgin Group Ltd wrote to Australia’s Adelaide Advertiser in answer to the charge from columnist Amber Petty that it was sexist to have women in bikinis trailing behind him.

‘The problem with her argument is that if I promote a product and I line up with three male models, the photo won’t get into your paper and the new business won’t get talked about,’ the 59-year-old said.

Petty described Branson as ‘about as sexy as a pair of those socks you get on international flights’ and said the only way he could get in a photograph with beautiful women was to pay for the privilege.