Avianova Airbus A320-200 (EI-ELE)
If you haven’t heard about Spirit Airline’s new (and “omg shocking”) advertisements, they are causing quite a stir. They are once again stealing right out of the Ryanair hand book on how to get a load of free publicity.
What do I think about their ads? Well any airline that gets me blogging about their ads are doing something right, and I will leave it at that. If Spirit’s new ad is too saucy for you? Well maybe you shouldn’t take a look at the Avianova ad found by Matt Molnar with NYCAviation.
Sure, advertising 101 teaches you that skin sells, but come on. Anything about routes? Amenities? Costs? Nope. Does this sort of advertising work? Well the airline industry has had a history of sexy advertising. This shouldn’t come as a surprise that both Spirit and Avianova have risky advertisements, they are both partly owned by the same company, Indigo Partners.
What are your thoughts? Are the ads going too far?
Well David:
As a man, I gotta love watching beautiful women in bikini washing a nice peace of machinery, I will definately take my plane (if I had one) to that Car Wash (or should I say Plane Wash). That I find the commercial relevant to an airline? I gotta to say no. Nothing is said in the commercial about services, routes or prices. The only thing you could get from the commercial is the airline might be saying: come fly with us and we’ll make you part of the high mile club or look how personal we get into our aircrafts maintenance. It looks more like Flight Attendants Gone Wild commercial than a serious airline one. But in the state the world’s economy is right now it doesn’t surprise me airlines and other companies taking this route of advertisement, as you well said “skin sells”. Don’t be surprise if you see in the future other airlines or other companies taking this or a similar approach into their advertisements.
In the end, I do not consider Spirit advertisement going that far (yet), but the Avianova commercial, definately yes. There are too many subliminal sexual messages in the commercial starting with the way the first fire hoses looks like, that at the end, they aren’t subliminars any more. You gotta be blind to not get the message of that commercial.
As a female, I think if you’re going to go that route, then at least make it an equal farce and produce a version with brawny sudsy/greased up bare-chested pilots and grounds crew, otherwise you just alienate all your female and gay male customers.
Although “tongue-in-cheeky”, with highly publicized plane crashes in the media, and airline safety still in the backs of many minds (fear-of-flying or not) because of it, is sexed up advertising really going to help put butts in seats other than say, frat house charters? I’m thinking, is this the kind of company I want to entrust my life with? And the more economically-minded might ask, this is what my fares are going towards? Expensive, gratuitous beer ads?
OMG! Hot chicks in bikinis! I’m so offended… wait, what?
I’m not surprised by this ad. I think that in this day in age nothing is sacred and there is nothing that is taboo in the world of marketing.