The Buzz Around BLAH Airlines
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The media is buzzing with news around Virgin America’s marketing spoof, BLAH Airlines, a fabricated airline with a very elaborate website which includes a live chat feature with a helpful representative named Sheri.
Virgin also launched a 6-hour-long campaign video yesterday entitled “Have you been flying BLAH airlines?” which, the last time we checked, had over 100,000 views on YouTube. The campaign is meant to poke fun at no-frills competitors and the known frustrations experienced by travelers on those airlines.
The APEX media team discovered the airline via Twitter yesterday when a colleague joked about the airline being an APEX member.
Hey i wonder if @BLAHAirlines is a member of @theAPEXassoc ? #hahaha #faux #airline @spafax @apexmag
— Venus Kitagawa-Stojšić, MT-BC (@somnambulist) October 15, 2014
This was followed by minutes (OK maybe more…) spent reading and giggling through the BLAH Airlines Twitter feed. We can only imagine their APEX EXPO booth setup in Portland next year, showcasing the latest in their “aircrafts with windows” or their Crystal Cabin Award nomination for innovations in airline seats, which “include armrests” and “fit most legs.”
Virgin wouldn’t be the first airline to come up with the idea of a fake airline, though. In 2003, Alaska Airlines launched SkyHigh Airlines, whose focus was on “cutting fares” and not the customer. The site advertised the airline’s many slogans including “a commitment to mediocrity,” or “saving you money at a price,” and our personal favorite “you all look like ants from here.” With SkyHigh, you could fly to exciting destinations such as Smeltertown, Texas or Middletown, Delaware…”Hi, I’m in Delaware.” Within days, the website reached 70,000 unique visitors, and that was back in 2003.
Some airlines have taken a less controversial approach to fake campaigns. In September, KLM launched a video featuring a “lost and found” dog who sniffed out forgotten items on airplanes in order to return them to passengers before they left the terminal . A statement made by a KLM spokesperson later revealed that “the dog [was] purely used to symbolize the active way in which the team will search for owners and unite them with their lost possessions.” Hearts were crushed when they found out the KLM dog wasn’t an actual KLM team member (or at least ours were!)
Given the popularity of the campaigns it’s not surprising that similar spoof websites, with no affiliation to an airline, have popped up, such as flymallard.com (Mallard Air). We stumbled across the website when googling “funny airline safety videos” and discovered Canadian electro-funk duo Chromeo were featured in their in-flight safety video. With another google search, we quickly learned that the airline and was a stunt set up by comedy video website Funny or Die and again, hearts sunk. But that hasn’t stopped the APEX media team from religiously following their Twitter account.
Take a selfie of yourself on a plane and tag it #DoILookPlane for prizes. Also make sure you address it to us @MallardAir
— Mallard Air (@MallardAir) May 15, 2014
But there’s a reason these kinds of marketing initiatives create buzz. Beyond the fact that it’s in-your-face type satire, the humor is based on an exaggerated version of reality. It strikes a nerve with travelers and, as a result, they’re more likely to share the content and increase it’s virality. But in the case of Virgin America, the video depicts frustrations experienced across all airlines (chair-kicking toddlers for example) and so, although their campaign has got people talking, we’ll have to wait and see if it actually plays out in their favor.
Honorable Mentions
Derrie-Air: A faux airline created by The Philadelphia Inquirer, a local newspaper who wanted to fake out their readers.
Oceanic Airlines & Oceanic Airways: Names of fictional airlines often used in TV and film, well known for it’s appearance in the hit TV-series Lost.
TnT Airlines: A too-good-to-not-include parody of in-flight safety videos.