"You're going to like where we land." UA's New Ad Campaign
#46
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,686
Following the flight 93/175 reinstatement debacle, another gaffe out of UACO at the site of the UAL175 crash
#47
Moderator: Smoking Lounge; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
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Looking at my own marketing, what happens if I'm sending out a snail-mail piece on things you can do with your bike (increase its utility) and out of 10,000 flyers, a handful go to people now deceased and provide an especially sad reminder to a couple of wives or husbands who lost their partner in a bicycle accident? Should I have been going through the obits to look for people to remove from my list? Rather than callously just pushing a button to enable a standard campaign, damn the consequences? (Real-life example, by the way, and you feel terrible taking the phone call or visit from the spouse)
Mistakes like these happen every day, everywhere. Look for an opportunity to make a big deal out of someone's unintentional gaffe and you will find it. The question is, how does the company behind the gaffe deal with it? That's what determines, in my mind, the measure of the company.
#48
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Redwood City, CA USA (SFO/SJC)
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Bolding mine: Yes, mistakes do happen every day and yes, your mailing list may include the names of folks who are deceased and also died in a bicycle accident but you (and no offense intended ) do not have the resources that an ad agency for a billion dollar corporation has. Ad placement is part of the job of an ad agency as XYZ Ad Agency wouldn't put an ad for "Whiteys Watermelons" in Harlem would they? (or would they if they didn't think about ad placement?)
If I were United and contracted with MTA, I would be inclined to trust that the MTA would know what they're doing, because they're local and because they want future business. I wouldn't consider substantial additional expenditures to ensure that an ad which, for all intents & purposes, appears entirely innocuous and without cultural sensitivity, was appropriate for each of perhaps hundreds of locations.
One more thing. If I were MTA, I'd do the honorable thing and fall on the sword. They have the least to lose and the most to gain from taking "credit" for this debacle, not to mention being the most responsible.
Last edited by Mike Jacoubowsky; May 20, 2011 at 5:31 pm Reason: clarity
#49
Moderator: Smoking Lounge; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
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At some point don't you have to trust someone else to do their job? At some point doesn't MTA become the party responsible for the ads showing up in inappropriate places? At some point doesn't it come down to the significant added expense of essentially micro-managing a project not making financial sense?
If I were United and contracted with MTA, I would be inclined to trust that the MTA would know what they're doing, because they're local and because they want future business. I wouldn't consider substantial additional expenditures to ensure that an ad which, for all intents & purposes, appears entirely innocuous and without cultural sensitivity, was appropriate for each of perhaps hundreds of locations.
One more thing. If I were MTA, I'd do the honorable thing and fall on the sword. They have the least to lose and the most to gain from taking "credit" for this debacle, not to mention being the most responsible.
If I were United and contracted with MTA, I would be inclined to trust that the MTA would know what they're doing, because they're local and because they want future business. I wouldn't consider substantial additional expenditures to ensure that an ad which, for all intents & purposes, appears entirely innocuous and without cultural sensitivity, was appropriate for each of perhaps hundreds of locations.
One more thing. If I were MTA, I'd do the honorable thing and fall on the sword. They have the least to lose and the most to gain from taking "credit" for this debacle, not to mention being the most responsible.
#51
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: San Diego
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Posts: 354
That's not how advertising works though. the chance someone knew at United, or even that someone who works for UAL had any say in the decision as to where to put them, is very slim.
#52
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: LAX
Programs: DL-PM | UA-1K | HH-Gold
Posts: 938
I'm sorry, this is a silly defence of an obvious gaff on the part of someone paid to promote a product. No one would have consciously put that tag-line there.
Anyone who can really intimate that, of all the tag-lines available, that one was the appropriate one for anything south of 25th was just playing devil's advocate.
Put up a United Ad. Make sure it doesn't have any possible double-entendre relation to the most consistently difficult event the last two generations of 90% of your client-base has ever witnessed. this isn't rocket-science.
This wasn't intentional, that was clear via its removal. But the idea that the add itslef was a "good" idea is silly. Whether it was dramatically offensive? That depends on perspective. Whether it was the most effective use of the space paid for: I look forward to someone explaining how that is true? Don't give me the "buzz" explanation either. No company wants to be on Drudge. Fact.
Cheers,
ORD-LIH
Anyone who can really intimate that, of all the tag-lines available, that one was the appropriate one for anything south of 25th was just playing devil's advocate.
Put up a United Ad. Make sure it doesn't have any possible double-entendre relation to the most consistently difficult event the last two generations of 90% of your client-base has ever witnessed. this isn't rocket-science.
This wasn't intentional, that was clear via its removal. But the idea that the add itslef was a "good" idea is silly. Whether it was dramatically offensive? That depends on perspective. Whether it was the most effective use of the space paid for: I look forward to someone explaining how that is true? Don't give me the "buzz" explanation either. No company wants to be on Drudge. Fact.
Cheers,
ORD-LIH
#53
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: ORD
Programs: HHonors Silver, UA (no status, but lots of miles!)
Posts: 465
I work for a travel company and I am not in marketing. But even I know what campaigns are going on and placements in which cities (bus shelters in this city, side of a building here, etc).
#54
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: USA
Programs: MYOB
Posts: 1,284
Well the news outlets in NYC are having fun with it and most people they are interviewing are basically saying it was in bad taste and bad judgment. It does not make any difference who is responsible it is the impression that it leaves in people's minds regarding COUA. Reporter also mentioned what a rough weak COUA has had by using retired UA FLT numbers.
Perhaps we missed something. Please advise what flights were OPERATED (i.e. USED) with the flight numbers in quesiton? It was admitted that the numbers were loaded in error, and removed prior to being used. The company made an apology publicly, and specifically in this forum, yet it is necessary to prattle on in three separate posts with baiting and incorrect rhetoric? Pity.
The ad is being used throughout the city. Yes, the placement here was probably lacking. That too has been rectified. Attempting to link these two items, and then suggesting, as some have, that there is mal intent, either from a corporation, or individual shows a lack of reasoned thinking. Were they mistakes? Yes. Will there be more? Most likely, and reported here in great detail.
Slow news week I guess.
Last edited by xzh445; May 21, 2011 at 9:24 pm
#59
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: SFO, LAX
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I walk through ground zero every day on my commute, and never even made the connection some are making here. It isn't like the ads are on the site, they are on the subway entrances, and the photo in this thread is not typically how the ad is going to be viewed. A bit of an overreaction here. The guy in the story who didn't really notice it is probably typical. Right now in NYC we are being bombarded with in-car subway campaigns for Delta and JetBlue, and now these are flooding the subway entrances. They all blend together.