Atlas HuggedAugust 4, 2008
What Would Don Draper Say?
A few days ago as I sat sweating miserably in the Hynes Convention Center T stop waiting for a C-line, I pondered the ad that hung across the tracks from my bench. Take a look:
I suppose what they want to say is that AirTran is ready to take you to a fun a place, but what I and probably most people will take away from this ad is that flying on an AirTran plane is like being on a rollercoaster. With planes getting more expensive, crowded, run-down, and more likely to have spontaneous holes blown out of the sides, wouldn't you want to steer clear of any images that would project a sense of danger to flying? What dumb ass thought showing an airplane seat on a rollercoaster would be effective marketing? The only logic could be that they're taking a brutally honest approach to their advertising. Everyone knows AirTran Airlines are crap and bounce around and make you want to puke, but let's remind people how fun and exciting that can be!
It's like the movie Crazy People with Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah. If you haven't seen it (and I can't imagine a whole lot of people have), it's about a guy who works in advertising and kind of snaps due to constantly lying to consumers and a bunch of his rejected "honest ads" get run accidentally. ("Forget France; The French can be annoying. Come to Greece, We're Nicer.") He gets sent to a mental hospital and starts an ad company comprised of all the crazy people who have a knack for honest advertising and the tactic is a huge public success. ("Buy Volvos. They're boxy but they're good.") I can envision this tagline replacing AirTran's current one on the above poster: "United, most of our passengers get there alive." I wish I could find the artwork that goes with the copy. Sadly, the tv spot for "AT&T: We're tired of taking your crap." isn't anywhere to be found on these interwebs, but fortunately, youtube comes through with the last clip from the movie, a brilliant Sony ad.
Posted by heidi at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)