Posted by Brian McCullough
Several people have forwarded this story…
The upshot is, Spirit Airlines (a company I am a big fan of, btw) recently ran a promotion called Many Islands Low Fairs to promote their $9 flights to the Caribbean. In other words, MILF.
Right…
So after customers began emailing about the questionable acronym, Spirit Air announced that it was “unformfortable” with the implications of the promotion. A quick check of the company website SpiritAir.com shows the promotion is not currently running.
The company claims that the executive who gave the ok to the promotion had no idea of the “other” meaning of MILF.
And yet, one of the pictures in the background of the ads shows a cluster of islands in the shape of a reclining woman. And Spirit has a history of controversial promotions:
In 2006, after receiving dozens of complaints, Spirit scrapped an online promotional game called “The Hunt for Hoffa” that offered low fares and poked fun at the FBI’s hunt for Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, USA Today reported at the time.
The promotion made a CNN list of dumbest business moments, but according to the company was the most successful in the airline’s history.
So, here we either have:
- A case of a clueless executive either unknowingly greenlighting a racy add campaign (perhaps younger, hipper underlings were having a goof at the executive’s expense), or…
- A brilliant wink wink marketing campaign. After all, lots of stories have been written about this ad at this point. And what have you taken away from it? Yep. Caribbean flights for $9. Well done, Spirit, well done.
Airline’s ‘MILF’ Promo Not What You Think (ABCNews)
No related posts.
