SkyHigh Airlines: Alaska Airlines' Spoof Site
I recently stumbled across the www.skyhighairlines.com site and, as a frequent flyer, I chuckled at much of the content. From the bogus Letter from the Chairman touting their new "Putting Customers Third" initiative to the "Flying More Caring Less" motto emblazoned across the home page, I found this site chock full of good-natured spoofs of the sappy stuff found in every carriers self-published magazine stuffed behind every seat on the plane.
It turns out that this is the creative genius of an advertising maven named Tracy Wong, whose company is named "Wongdoody". He created the SkyHigh image to acknowledge the frustrations of the modern traveler and developed an integrated advertising campaign around it with TV, radio, direct mail, Web, and public relations components. The goal of this intriguing approach was to position Alaska Air in customers' eyes as the antithesis of this "worlds' worst airline".
If you have a few moments to spare, check out the "Nicessities" direct mail catalog and its inventive products. The "Sniff-a-Snack" scratch and sniff meal is surely the ultimate in "low calorie" food service on a plane. And the "hiney horn", to squeeze fat butts into narrow seats, is a travel accessory everyone should have tucked in the suitcase. Some of the humor is pretty juvenile, like the "GottaGo!" 94 ounce combined travel mug/lavatory that is featured on the front of the catalog. But, this overall campaign won a Gold Direct Lion award in the Cannes Lions advertising competition.
|
