I’ve worked on airline business pretty much all my career.
Actually, I’ve worked on one airline business pretty much all my career, Virgin Atlantic.
Now while I appreciate they’re different to most – if not all – the ‘established’ airline carriers, there are some things that are common across all – and one of those is to never, ever, Ever, EVER talk about safety in your comms.
Safety is a major no go.
Apart from the fact it’s a pre-requisite for all airline travel, the last thing you want to do is put any seed of doubt in the passengers mind.
Hell, I once got my knuckles rapped for jokingly suggesting the following for VA:
“Qantas are the safest airline in the World which means statistically, they are the most likely to have the next big crash”.
OK, so it was [1] statistically incorrect and [2] pretty evil … but even as a joke, it was frowned upon – that is how seriously they take this issue – which makes this new ad from one of the brands I love to hate – yes, Qantas – even more surprising …
Are they fucking mad???
“Because I can always trust them to get me home”.
Seriously!?
Do people ever choose an airline because they only ‘sometimes’ trust them to get them home?
They’re stark raving fucking mad.
OK, so their safety record is the best in the World, but …
1/ They are opening the door on the biggest airline taboo there is.
2/ If they have a major incident in the near future, their whole ‘competitive advantage’ disappears forever.
3/ Qantas have quite a track record of accidents, it’s just they pay for all ‘airline damage’ themselves, rather than claiming on insurance, which keeps their record intact.
All that aside, it’s a fucking terrible ad – from idea, visual and everything inbetween.
Now I am sure some guy at Qantas will claim this is not an ad about ‘accidents’ but simply the assurance they’re a stable airline that will always fulfill it’s ticket obligations – especially prevalent given the amount of Australasian airlines that have gone bust leaving thousands of people stranded – but even if that is the case, it’s reads absolutely like a fear mongering ad … designed to appeal to people’s sense of survival rather than their desire for a positive flying experience.
Which is handy, as you don’t get that very often on Qantas either.
Sometimes its much better to leave things unsaid … let them hang in people’s collective consciousness and build additional benefits around them to give your brand an even stronger and more powerful proposition.
Of course this is dependent on a whole host of things, however where safety is concerned, opening the door on that issue could prove to end up being the Pandora’s box you wish you kept shut … especially when there has been so many recent headlines talking about Qantas’ recent run of bad luck and maintenance.
I don’t know who did this – or who approved it – but unless we see competitive airlines running lines like …
“We Have A Bad Safety Standard Record, But We’re Cheap”.
or
“We Are The Terrorists Airline Of Choice And We Don’t Bomb Our Own”.
… I’m guessing they may live to regret putting out this crass shit.
I certainly hope so.
Guess it proves my point from Circus, when I said …
“If Qantas is the spirit of Australia, then the whole country is fucked.”