Originally Posted by
ursine1
Yes, this is very odd -- highlight seat numbers at an airline where they don't use seat numbers
... In fact, including them somewhat works against concept, in that it takes the idea of a unique customer and their individual story and essentially reduces that to a number.
There is that (likely unintended) subtext—
Perhaps you’re a person, but to us, you’re 6c.
I happened to be at a party last weekend where a TV was on, and I saw a Southwest ad repeated a few times: A coach rallies his team before a game, saying something along the lines of “I’m so confident that we’re going to win that I didn’t buy us tickets for the flight home...we’re going straight to the championship!” Then, it cuts to everyone moping around the locker room after the game (clearly, the team lost), and now they have seat numbers floating next to their heads. Finally, a voiceover says something about the flexibility Southwest “no change fees” policy.
The ad’s general premise is good, in my opinion:
Since Southwest allows you to change a ticket with no penalty, you can book tickets for the championship hoping that you win....then change them, penalty-free, to tickets for the sad trip back home after you lose. It fits perfectly with the Transfarency theme.
But the seat numbers next to their heads...what do they add to the commercial? Nothing—other than to tie into the campaign. So the coach is now “14e”; does that mean he would have been a different seat number if they went to the championship instead? If you know anything about Southwest, you’re aware that even an A-Lister coach doesn’t have any seat number at all until he walks down the jetway and passes all of the rows of preboards and throughs.
And that gets at what I think is the problem with the seat number approach:
Originally Posted by
DenverBrian
I think it would have been much more in WN’s culture to pop up boarding position instead of seat number.
To me, it seems like an idea cooked up by someone who has spent a lot of time flying other airlines and is oddly disconnected from Southwest’s culture.
I’m in the advertising business myself, albeit the less-exciting business-to-business sphere. I’ve sat through countless brainstorming sessions and pitch meetings, and the floating seat number approach seems like the kind of idea that would have gotten thrown out after the first round.