Tag: Travel Advertising

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Spirit Airlines Throws Temper Tantrum, Hikes Fees

February 3, 2012 at 1:17 PM | by | Comments (0)

It seems like only Monday when we were saying that it might be a bad idea to force airlines—some of whom barely have a pulse, as exemplified by the American Airlines bankruptcy—to give up on all the ways they've invented to make money. No one denies that some airline fees are insanely grating, and we complain about them as much as anyone, but with the airline industry recovering from the worst decade ever, maybe this isn't the perfect time for heavy-handed government brainstorming. No one wants a repeat of the tarmac delays debacle, after all.

Naturally the Department of Transportation has chosen now to pass a series of new regulations, including a ban on ticket-change fees for changes made within 24 hours of booking. And we could be doing a post about whether those are bad ideas in theory or in practice or in both. But instead we're going to write about the reaction of Spirit Airlines to the DOT's decision. Because if theRyanair of North America has a specialty, it's in taking something mildly obnoxious and completely owning it.

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New Standard Set for Creepy 'Sexy Flight Attendants' Airline Advertising

January 27, 2012 at 2:15 PM | by | Comments (0)

Modern-day airlines are not shy about travel advertising built on the sex appeal of their flight attendants. Ryanair closed last year with a particularly blatant reminder, in the form of a lingerie calendar, that booking a ticket with the airline would get you a chance to interact with their hot employees. That wasn't particularly original, inasmuch as we've recently seen sex advertising and nude calendars involving flight attendants of Aeroflot and Mexicana and Spanish Air and Avianova. It was, however, somewhat effective at generating customer interest, since it turns out that sex sells. Who knew?

There are those people who criticize these ads, either on general sexism grounds or because the ads potentially promote the sexual harassment of flight attendants. Then there are other people who throw up their hands on the question, settling for the neutral argument that it's the job of advertisers to make effective ads and that's that. Finally there are the people who actively defend sex-tinged advertising, because what's wrong with sex? But on this we hope all sides can agree: this 1950s ad for Czech Airlines—which doesn't seem like an ad but really was—is pervy and creepy and pervy and creepy.

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Priceline Kills Off Captain Kir...Err, the Priceline Negotiator

January 23, 2012 at 2:00 PM | by | Comments (0)

We're not as-a-rule opposed to seeing travel advertising mascots getting killed. Last December, when Air New Zealand murdered off their spokespuppet Rico, we even declared ourselves to be fairly pleased. The borderline rapey rat-like character had become insanely grating even (especially?) for a felt puppet. So when the airline announced a viral Whodunit game where players tried to figure out Rico's murderer, we figured that was as good an excuse as any to be rid of him.

But today we weep. For today, Priceline kills off the Priceline Negotiator. The travel industry icon, played by William Shatner, has been the face of the travel bidding and booking company for 14 years. To give you an idea of how big a business and culture story this is, it's being run everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Perez Hilton. They sound sad too. Not as sad as we are, of course, but it's there if you read between the lines. For his part Shatner describes himself as being "in grief mode."

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Air New Zealand Kills Off Their Viral Video Puppet. Literally.

December 5, 2011 at 2:04 PM | by | Comment (1)

Air New Zealand's new viral media campaign asks fans and followers to solve the murder of Rico, their obnoxious creepster of a puppet, by playing an online game.

The rat-like character, you'll remember, had been slowly making the transition merely sleazy to borderline rapey over a series of videos. Apparently the airline's creatives ran out of ideas, so they killed him.

The game is a Clue knockoff in which players are asked to determine which celebrity killed Rico where with what etc etc. The story is that Rico was killed at a Hollywood house-warming party, and so many of his former interviewees apparently make appearances. There's also some kind of prize which includes economy airfare to LA, a hotel stay, Universal Studios and Disney vouchers, and some other stuff. We're unsure whether "not playing the game at all" because "you really don't care" makes you eligible, but the rules and conditions spell everything out.

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USA Today is Pretty Bummed Out Over In-Plane Advertising

November 1, 2011 at 4:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

There's an old Simpsons line about USA Today, where Homer tells Lisa that the newspaper isn't afraid to tell America the truth, which is that "everything is just fine." So when the country's second-largest newspaper notices that travel advertising on airlines has gotten kind of obnoxious, there's a decent chance that things have actually reached crisis proportions.

And in fairness, so-called "ambient advertising" has definitely gotten out of hand on American airlines. Led by Spirit Airlines—of course, because who else—there are logos and patches even on the uniforms of flight attendants.

We're long past the days when it was controversial to put ads on the backs of magazines or even on tray tables, and we've all seen pitches for cars and restaurants included on print-at-home boarding passes. So the actual "yes advertising is everywhere now" part of the article is definitely true. We were just surprised to learn that anybody cared.

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Sicily Wine Commercial Does Its Job of Making Us Long for Italy

Where: Italy
September 23, 2011 at 2:38 PM | by | Comment (1)

We occasionally run into these situations, where a commercial for some product reminds us that beautiful people in Italy are having a lot more fun than we are. Last time it was this insanely fun commercial by Italian vermouth company Martini, which was filmed in Croatia but still retained its Italian ethos. This time it's a commercial by Italian winemaker Tasca d'Almerita, which looks like something that could have been produced by an Italian tourism board. Except it's better.

The video is titled "A Glass of Sicily, and Adweek tells us that there's an Itanian "viral media company" behind the 80-second production. That explains, at the very least, how a commercial for a wine maker ended up with an interactive map on Flickr, though not why it was filled with photos and videos that are functionally travel advertisements for Sicily. Again, if they didn't get at least some money from an Italian tourism board they got ripped off. It's a gorgeous commercial.

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Ryanair Publicity Stunts Now Just Getting Lazy, Probably Sexist

September 8, 2011 at 2:56 PM | by | Comment (1)

Listen. We're not exactly prudes when it comes to the significant overlap between the world of travel and the world of boobs. In the course of a few months last year we covered very extreme flight attendant nakedness on three different continents, spanning calendars and ads from Australia to Russia to Spain.

We—proudly, with absolutely no shame—had a Naughtiest Flight Attendants 2010 Jaunty. We maintain different sections so we can differentiate between Nude Travel and Naked Travel and Sex Travel, because, hey, those are all different things and we know you demand precision on these issues.

So we can't really get offended by latest Ryanair ad, which pushes cheap tickets to the Bavarian beer festival. The picture is fine—it's just a fraulein showing a hint of cleavage—but the cheap attempt at controversy comes from putting her picture under "See The Frauleins With The Big Jugs." Our problem is that the ad just kind of sucks.

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Cathay Pacific Rethinks 'Flight Attendant Service' Campaign After Cockpit Sex Pictures Scandal

August 24, 2011 at 4:27 PM | by | Comments (0)

Cathay Pacific has long emphasized its reputation for comfort, style and especially customer service. Aside from constructing decadent space-age lounges and providing flyers with delicious cocktail after delicious cocktail, the airline has especially tried to highlight the pampering provided by its flight attendants.

Those branding efforts have been going on at least since 2009, when its corporate blog announced a campaign highlighting the bios of staff "who consistently go the extra mile to make sure our passengers enjoy an exceptional travel experience."

The Hong Kong airline intended to continue its "People and Service" campaign this year with a new slogan: "Meet the team who go the extra mile to make you feel special." The tagline was supposed to provide a theme for hundreds of pilot and flight attendant stories, all emphasizing the unique services provided by Cathay Pacific's employees. That service-oriented campaign is now on indefinite hiatus, however, after pictures surfaced—and there's no way we're not going to make this joke, so prepare yourselves—after pictures surfaced of a flight attendant orally servicing a pilot in a Cathay Pacific cockpit.

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Lindsay Lohan Stars Opposite Air New Zealand's Creepy Puppet Rico. Hilarity Ensues.

August 2, 2011 at 11:30 AM | by | Comments (3)

By our count this is the third or fourth round of viral Air New Zealand ads with their overtly sexual spokespuppet Rico, and the second time we're posting about him. The first time around we dubbed him a creepster, awarded him no points, and asked God to have mercy not only on his soul, but also on the souls of the creatives who did the ads and the focus group participants who found the videos funny.

The overarching concept is that Rico keeps talking about how awesome New Zealand is, except he explains himself by saying dirty things like "I love her bush—it's amazing," "I can feel her wind—she's blowing you," and "you can lick the crack." Get it? Because he's a felt hand puppet with fangs, but he says things that are sexual. How could this idea get any better, you might wonder. By having Lindsay Lohan guest star opposite Rico. Obviously.

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Tunisia Launches World's Most Morbid Tourism Campaign

July 20, 2011 at 1:58 PM | by | Comment (1)

About a year ago we wrote up Mexico's "The Place You Thought You Knew" tourism advertising campaign. Mexico's strategy was to focus on all the interesting things you could find in the country, and to hope against hope that you'd forget about all the unpleasant shootings and beheadings and stuff.

A new campaign from post-Arab Spring Tunisia is kind of like that, in that it's aggressively the exact total opposite. Instead of dodging the issue of violent riots, which swept across the country during its democratic revolution and claimed over 200 lives, Tunisia's tourism people have turned them into a series of dark jokes. The angle is definitely getting people's attention, so two points for honesty and another two for cleverness we suppose. But dude.

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Spirit Air's Newest Tactless Ad Makes Fun of Schwarzenegger-Shriver Family

May 25, 2011 at 2:24 PM | by | Comments (0)

We used to joke that Spirit Airlines had set its eyes on becoming the Ryanair of the United States. They have the single worst baggage fee policy in the country, they flirt with innovations like non-recline seats, their top officials enjoy acting like jerks, etc.

Then that turned out not to be a joke at all, which we found out when Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza proudly declared that Ryanair "has been an inspiration" to the American LCC. So we were unsurprised when Spirit rolled out ads based on Charlie Sheen's meltdown and even on the Gulf Oil spill. And we're now equally unsurprised to learn that the airline has gone ahead and made a joke of the Schwarzenegger-Shriver ugliness.

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YouTube's Rapping Bavarian Nutcracker Puts Leavenworth, WA on the Map

December 8, 2010 at 1:45 PM | by | Comments (2)

Last year we sent you down to Leavenworth, WA for some picturesque summer tubing. To which you guys responded "well sure Jaunted, that was fun, but is there anything to do in Leavenworth during the bucolic fall, the breezy winter, or the refreshing spring?" Good question.

Meet Woody Goomsba, Official Ambassador of the Bavarian Village of Leavenworth and star of the latest travel ad from the Leavenworth tourism board. His debut music video "Gitcha Goomsba Up" was quietly uploaded to YouTube last Friday and has already topped 40,000 hits, garnering www.leavenworth.org some well-deserved attention. The Bavarian town's 44th Annual Christmas Lighting Festival is in full swing, it turns out, although unfortunately their popular "Art in the Park series" wrapped up last October. How's that for research?

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