Fly the Branded Skies

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://brandedskies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/mothercountry.mp3″ title=”United Air Lines: “Mother Country””]

A confession: I actually like a lot of the jingles I write about. Not even in an ironic, hipster sort of way either. Some of them are admittedly guilty pleasures (like TWA’s 80s power ballad Leading the Way — still desperately trying to find that one on vinyl, by the way) but others I think are legitimately great songs. And of those, “Mother Country” is my favourite.

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[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://brandedskies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/balladoftheboss.mp3″ title=”United Air Lines: “Ballad of the Boss””]

There’s a reason why Leo Burnett was United’s advertising agency for more than thirty years. It has to do with Burnett’s trademark style: Warm. Folksy. Midwestern. Sometimes a bit schmaltzy. But always human. For a long time, that style fit United’s brand perfectly. The result was some of the most memorable airline advertising of the last century.

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