I believe things like salt and pepper shakers as well as coffee cups are designed to be taken. In fact, I took the Virgin coffee cup when I asked the FA if I could buy one and she offered to get me a clean one for free.
Things like coffee cups and shakers, especially in premium cabins, cost an airline pennies vs. the thousands we spend with them. Bringing a cute airplane shaped salt shaker or a mug to the office is a conversation piece as well as serving as free advertising. Even at home the airline probably reasons that you using the mug keeps their brand in the back of your mind.
An excerpt from Richard Branson:
The entrepreneur, who launched Virgin Atlantic in 1984, described how both his
irreverent spirit and scrupulous attention to detail led to the accidental creation of one of the brand’s “best advertising” campaigns.
“I remember that one day my chief accountant was saying: ‘Everyone’s stealing our salt and pepper pots [off the planes]’ – they’re little windmills, people found them very attractive – ‘and it’s costing us, I don’t know, $3m a year’,” Branson regaled.
“So he suggested we take the salt and pepper pots off the airline. But instead of doing that we just wrote under the salt and pepper pots, ‘Pinched from Virgin Atlantic’. We got some of the best advertising we could at everyone’s dinner table.
Link:
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/03...rtising-weapon