Low-Cost Carriers Bristle Over Beer Advertisement

Air Safety Week,  Oct 31, 2005  

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AirTran Airways [AAI] and other low-cost carriers are upset over beer giant Anheuser-Busch's [BUD] radio advertisement that pokes fun at discount airlines and their pilots.

The advertisement, now pulled, was part of Anheuser-Busch's "Real Men of Genius" radio campaign, which featured characters such as "Mr. Bathroom Stall Dirty Joke Writer," and, until the complaints, "Mr. Discount Airline Pilot Guy."

The advertisement, created by DBB-Chicago, commended discount airlines pilots for their "minimal experience" and for putting the "fly" in "fly by night." The advertisement questioned the commitment of discount carriers to safety, saying, "Sure we're concerned for our lives, just not as concerned as saving nine bucks on a round-trip to Ft. Myers [Florida]."

The advertisement aired once last January, and was pulled almost immediately in the face of criticism. However, it has become something of a cult phenomenon, enjoying continued life on the Internet. Perhaps worse, when Tad Hutchison, AirTran's director of marketing, telephoned Anheuser-Busch to complain about the advertisement, he was put on hold and treated to a replay of "Mr. Discount Airline Pilot Guy."

The result of all this was a letter of complaint to Anheuser-Busch from AirTran Chairman and CEO Joe Leonard. The airline is considering pulling sales of the brewery's Budweiser and Bud Light from its planes. As of this writing, Leonard had not received an answer to his Oct. 20 letter.

However, Anheuser-Busch did release a statement of apology: "This campaign was meant to poke fun at slices of everyday life, but this execution clearly crossed the line and is in poor taste."

A Southwest Airlines [LUV] official, representing another low-cost carrier, commended Anheuser-Busch for "immediate action" in promptly pulling the advertisement, saying, "We were appalled by the advertisement's poor taste ... All airlines take safety very seriously, and this advertisement was a mockery of those diligent efforts."

Southwest has flown for more than two decades since its inception without a fatal accident.

AirTran is the former ValuJet Airlines, which lost an aging DC-9 to an in-flight belly hold fire in 1996, killing all 110 aboard (see ASW, Nov. 17, 1997). Following the accident, the carrier reinvented itself as AirTran, and since 2003 it has been flying a fleet of new B717s, a derivative of the venerable DC-9 but much improved. Indeed, the carrier was the launch customer for the B717.

[Copyright 2005 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]

TICKER(S): AirTran Airways [AAI]: Anheuser-Busch's [BUD]: Southwest Airlines [LUV]:

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