Fly the Branded Skies

 

Airline: United Airlines

These are posts from Fly the Branded Skies about United Airlines.

ICAO Code: UAL

United Airlines Future Pilot Wings
United Airlines Jr. Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Junior Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Wings
United Airlines Arlene Airess Junior Stewardess Club Wings
United Airlines Future Pilot Wings
United Airlines Jr. Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Junior Flight Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Future Pilot Wings
United Airlines Jr. Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Junior Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Future Pilot Wings
United Airlines Future Pilot Wings
United Airlines Future Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Future Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Future Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Junior Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Wings
United Airlines Future Flight Attendant Wings
United Airlines Future Pilot Wings
United Airlines Future Stewardess Wings
United Airlines Future Flight Attendant Wings
United Airlines Future Pilot Wings
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United Airlines Mystery Tiki Wings
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Jingle: United Air Lines “Take Me Along” (1967)


Listen: United Air Lines: “Take Me Along”

This campaign is notorious in the annals of advertising—right up there with the Pacific Air Lines campaign from Stan Freberg that allegedly drove the airline into bankruptcy. Neither campaign was quite as disastrous as the lore now suggests. In fact, this one may have been a big success.

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US Airlines? American Airways? Deltmerican?

The smart money says American Airlines will merge with another airline before it emerges from bankruptcy protection. Right now, US Airways seems like the most likely suitor, but Delta is reportedly also considering its options.

Of course, one of the main issues in any merger is what the combined company will be called. As with everything in the airline business, egos get involved. Often the merged carrier takes on the name of the party in the strongest financial position—but not always. US Airways was technically acquired by America West Airlines in 2005, but the combined carrier kept the US Airways name anyway.

And so I open the floor to rampant speculation: will the name “American Airlines” survive a merger? Or is its 78-year history near its end? Some of the merger match-ups after the jump are plausible. Some are patently ridiculous. But when it comes to naming, they all raise interesting questions.

Vote in the polls below, then explain your reasoning in the comments!

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Jingle: United “Trails” (1972)

Your Land is Our Land. United Air Lines

Listen: United Air Lines: “Trails”

This jingle, cute but unremembered, is a testament to a maturing industry.

It is a symbol, in fact, of a whole genre of airline advertising that barely exists anymore. This genre didn’t say much about fares, or onboard service, or frequent flier programs. Instead, it sold the joy of travel to a public that wasn’t yet used to travelling.

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Tropes: Graduation Day

Every kind of advertising has—well, let’s call them “conventions.” Airline advertising is no different. This is part of a series of posts on the clichés of airline advertising.

This may not be a pervasive trope, but over the years it has popped up often enough to make for some interesting comparisons: stewardesses graduating from training. These four spots, spanning four decades, tell a lot both about how flight attendants are portrayed in advertising and how they’re seen by society at large.

Let’s start in the late 1960s.

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Jingle: United “Fly the Friendly Skies” (1965)

Fly the friendly skies of United.

Listen: United Air Lines: “Fly the Friendly Skies”

“Fly the Friendly Skies” is without question the best-known airline tagline of all time, and it oughta be. United used it for more than 30 years.

That in itself is rare. Even rarer is the fact that for all those years, United employed the same advertising agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago.

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According to Advertising Age, United Continental Holdings is looking for a new advertising agency. The article doesn’t say whether Kaplan Thaler Group (Continental) or Barrie D’Rozario Murphy (United) will be participating in the review. Combined spending for the two airlines was $63.2 million in measured media in 2010, although the vast majority of that came from Continental.

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As the tulip flies into the sunset, the Pentagram design studio reflects on its 15 years of working with United Airlines. (via Quipsologies)

Super*bleep*

Well, the Big Game is less than a week away and, like everyone else, Fly the Branded Skies is taking advantage of the buzz without all the hassle of paying a few million dollars for a sponsorship. This is an index to airline Super Bowl ads of the past 46 years. It draws extensively on Adland’s extensive archive of Super Bowl spots, with a few added in from YouTube.   Read more

Tropes: Employee-Owners

Every kind of advertising has—well, let’s call them “conventions.” Airline advertising is no different. This is part of a series of posts on the clichés of airline advertising.

When airlines get into trouble, as they often do, they eventually end up being worth more dead than alive. But there’s one group of people that always has an interest in keeping the planes flying: the employees. Over the past few decades, a number of airlines have been saved — however temporarily — when employees took ownership stakes in them, usually in exchange for pay cuts.

And as soon as employees become stockholders, the airline advertises.


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Why safety isn’t safe

Pacific Airlines ad

You’re looking at the stupidest airline ad ever produced.

On April 28, 1967, Pacific Air Lines ran this full page ad in the New York Times. It was created by advertising (and comedy) legend Stan Freberg in a bid to bring some honesty to airline advertising. But while the ad may have been honest, it didn’t do much good for Pacific Air Lines.

It is not true, as is often reported, that the ad drove Pacific Air Lines into bankruptcy two months later. In fact, Pacific merged with two other carriers to form Air West, and the forces that compelled the merger had little to do with advertising. But the ad did, within days, cost the jobs of the airline’s vice president of marketing and its director of advertising, and it quickly became notorious.

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