Fly the Branded Skies

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://brandedskies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/YoureGonnaLuvThatSouthwestSpirit.mp3″ title=”Southwest Airlines: “You’re Gonna Luv That Southwest Spirit””]

GSD&M has been Southwest Airlines’ advertising agency for more than thirty years. The exclusivity of that relationship is currently in question, with at least eight agencies now vying for a major assignment from the carrier. As Southwest reviews its account, it seems like a good time to review some of the earliest work.

This jingle comes from GSD&M’s first major campaign for Southwest in 1982.

GSD&M was not Southwest’s first agency. Many of the defining characteristics of the Southwest Airlines brand — “love,” for example — were already present when the Bloom Agency handled the account. In fact, the Bloom Agency’s last campaign jingle was entitled “Lovin’ you is what we do.” A 1977 commercial’s tagline was “We’re spreading love all over Texas.” Another campaign promised “love, Southwest Style.”

So GSD&M’s campaign, “You’re gonna love our Southwest Spirit,” was hardly a break from earlier work — it was a continuation of the brand Southwest had been building throughout the 1970s. But it certainly included a memorable commercial starring Herb Kelleher:

I’ve written before that GSD&M’s jingles for Southwest fall into four categories: a capella, hoedown, jingle, and power ballad. This is your standard jingle. Certainly the way the singers belt out “We’re Southwest! Airlines!” is pretty conventional fare. But there is still something endearing — to borrow a word from the lyrics — about the song.

At around the same time another Texas-based airline, Braniff, was singing “We better be better,” Southwest Airlines was confessing its love for its passengers: “We owe it all to you.”

So many airline jingles preen like cats; this one slobbers all over you like a puppy.

Airline: Southwest Airlines
Title: “You’re Gonna Luv that Southwest Spirit”
Agency: GSD&M, Austin, Texas
Written By: Unknown
Sung by: Unknown
Year: 1982
Lyrics

There’s a certain Southwest Spirit.
(There’s a certain Southwest Spirit.)
If you listen you can hear it.
(If you listen you can hear it.)
And it’s guaranteed to brighten up your day.

You’re gonna love our Southwest Spirit.
And our aim is to endear it
to our passengers throughout the U-S-A.

Our Southwest Spirit’s here to stay,
’cause we practise it each day,
on the ground below and in the air above.

We’re Southwest Airlines.
And from the very start,
we’ve taken loving you to heart.

We’re Southwest Airlines.
And we owe it all,
we owe it all,
to you.

April 2nd, 2012 \ Posted in Jingles \ 1 Comment »