Branson Cash Grab

Richard Branson may only be the 234th richest person on the planet yet an independent Sydney radio station is looking to him as the potential source of its own economic stimulus plan.

FBI radio is calling on listeners to make an open pitch to the bearded billionaire in the hope Branson will take notice and be enticed to hand out $1 million to the station.

What FBI may have overlooked however is that Branson may be counting his pennies this year after losing more than half of his wealth over the past 12 months (April to April) – dropping £1.5 billion in the downturn to leave him with a pitiful £1.2 billion.

Nonetheless this isn’t stopping the station and its listeners in getting creative.

In fact, Sydney band Baba O’Reilly have even gone so far as writing a song to attract Branno’s attention.

Other attempts at stirring Branson into an act of notable generosity include local graffiti – yet burningpants doubts Sir Richard will be passing through Sydney’s inner suburbs in the foreseeable future and is therefore likely to go unseen by the one pair of eyes the station is trying to catch the attention of.

Other and more technologically savvy attempts to get an ‘Oi’ to Branson, include plans to pepper his Twitter site with messages and comments to publicise FBI’s initiative – something Branson would surely respect, considering his penchant for cheap publicity.

Meanwhile one standout idea so far comes from Six Hands, a Sydney textile design studio, which has offered to paint Virgin planes

“If you give the million to keep the FBI dream alive, we’ll pimp your sky rides with hot custom Aussie designer artwork to get you what you like best, more press for Virgin. Support businesses that give fresh Australian creativity wings. C’mon Richard,” Six Hands claims.