The tag on this senseless ad is “We know why you fly.” They tell you this after you sit through long minutes of watching an agent take his Eastern European basketball star to various countries in an attempt to land a contract.
Let us just take a moment and recall that tag line, “We know why you fly.” TM Advertising in Dallas is responsible for this and really, I’m just gonna say it – What the fuck is wrong with you guys? It’s almost as if you sat around and said, “Let’s think of the most obscure and rare reason that two people would be traveling together. And then, yeah, lets show them using our client’s airline to travel for a reason that 99.9% of the American population will never, ever, ever be a party, too. Sound good? Roll tape!”
Did your planner not look into the airline’s industry right now and see the carnage? Oh no? Okay, let me help you out:
AA posted US $360 million in the third quarter after clocking more than $1.7 billion in losses in the first half of the year.
American Airlines along with other US carries are being blamed for ruining Thanksgiving. Talk about bad PR. Oh wait! It gets better. AA is also nixing union jobs, got serious crap for charging Iraq veterans extra fees, and just check out the volume of blog post complaining about their customer service (see: here, here, here and here). Consumers are even having contests to give away thousands of American Airlines miles just to be rid of the company, who is still charging fees on fuel despite a growing uprising. Face it. America hates American. Nobody likes them. Nobody.
The airline’s domestic service is in the gutter. The business class competition is fierce, but all the while, American’s international service remained steady. Analysts are predicating moderate gains for international travel for the next 2-3 years.
So, fine. You’re going to ignore the big, stinking elephant in the room that is the tattered, poop stained brand called American Airlines and push the international service. Um, okay, but erm… how about pushing it in a way that makes your tag line relate to travel concerns when flying internationally (on-time flights, comfort, price, check-ins, extras, safety, etc.). Couldn’t you have at least done that right? This ad is blight on the industry we so proudly call advertising. This? This is pure stupidity.
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