I’ve written in the past about the best airline boarding music and the best airline safety videos. Continuing with the theme of enjoying airline-related things at home, today I want to share some of my favorite airline ads that were produced in the past 25 or so years.
Continue reading: The Best Airline Ad Campaigns: Here Are My Favorites From Over The Years
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Meanwhile, my broke brain immediately started thinking about saving 50 pounds on my next Jet2 Holiday.
Advertising movies are tricky psycho come-ons for the fare and fee paying sheep . All fake .
@ beyounged -- Shame on me for forgetting that! Updating the post now to add that, thanks!
Just know this… if you see Rodney Dangerfield on-board, that airline is about to go bankrupt.
(Western Airlines… connects you fast through Salt Lake…)
@Ben
Can't believe you missed the virgin Atlantic - Gay Ad (2004) - promoting their upper class. 😉
These "best of" airline commericial lists seem always to neglect a 1990 United commercial which has proved precient for the 2020's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU2rpcAABbA
The Qantas koala ads from the 70s are the GOAT - they’re on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kOWM40o_Dic?si=GuJazP9XSvRL-bF2
Cheesiest jingle is Go Easy, Go ATA, and somehow it wasn’t from the late 70s-early 80: https://youtu.be/nDHRBOaF-7M?si=0ZrA9o8Glm0wl__O
Absolutely, “If you wanted to sleep with him, you would’ve married him” was bold, even groundbreaking for its time, I’d say, with a signature british sense of humour
That British Airways visit mum video is my absolute favorite. Off to a great Friday start tearing up at my desk! Thanks Ben 🙂
Yes, I was looking for this too! that was a great one and oh so Virgin Atlantic
A few of my favs are airlines that don't exist anymore and had catchy jingles (since I have been in marketing for almost 40 years, I still love a jingle):
TWA - Comfort Class commercials
NWA - Look to Us - Northwest
Ozark - Flys your way
American - Doing what we do best!
Pan Am - Say Hello to Pan Am
British Airways - don't know the name but the return to work / post pandemic commercial
Ben, thank you so much, you have no idea how grateful I am to you for brightening up a very showery spring day, here in the Shires. Of course many of the advertisement videos are unknown to me, however, most enjoyable nevertheless.
As an aviator, there is only one choice for me and I note that others liked the other BA example too. Ben, you certainly have put a smile on this crusty old face …. 🙂
Honest question
For the AA 9/11 campaign, did Enya get paid by AA for the complete rip off of “storms over Africa”? Or is it supposed to be that song with modifications?
How’r things lookin’ over there, anyhow? Will the PM last another week, or will Andy “King of
the North” and “business-friendly socialist” Burnham soon come down from Manchester to the rescue? (Surely, you’re not a Reform looney, are ye? I’d hope not, especially with your exquisite taste in overseas travel. Too open-minded to merely scapegoat immigrants, surely. *fingers crossed*)
Ahh, yes, American corporations… adopting new technologies that profit the top, while neglecting workers, clients, consumers, and everyone else… the since at least 1990s.
But, don’t worry, United is different. Also, I think that guy’s gonna go punch his boss…
These ads are great. Having said that, I liked flying more when I knew less about it. The economics of airlines, like hotels, real estate and insurance, seem optimized to provide as little of what was promised as possible whilst extracting maximum revenue.
I don't begrudge a corporate person from trying to maximize revenue in general. I do begrudge a corporate person trying to predicate much of their revenue on taking advantage of the customer's ignorance of what they are owed, or of said customer's lack of resources to contest poor treatment.
I mainly fly for work now and not pleasure because I'm tired of the cognitive load of trying to match the chicanery of airlines. This applies even when leveraging automation/LLMs.
Welcome to another revenge candidate @1990. Nigel is probably mainly running because they took away hit Coutts.
Oh, I thought it was just all the Putin-backed Russian-oligarch money, but, sure, maybe it's spite, too. Never underestimate the power of spite!
BA's Visit Mum is very close to my heart. Like the guy in it, I too am an Indian, who left home at 17, and then eventually moved to US for studies and then settled here. The campaign was released only few months after my mom passed away. I still can't watch it.
Southern Airlines "Second class" from the early 70s
Braniff. The you've got it flaunt it.
Then there's the old 60 campaign "Fly Me for National airlines. Sexist as hell but great.
1990, thank you for asking about those of us who reside on the right side of the pond. From reading about the state of so many countries around the world, we are all subject to the same numpties who are robbing us of our ‘hard-earned’. Still with some studious forward planning, we are successfully circumventing the socialists pickpockets who call themselves ‘the government’ of The UK.
One shudders to think how this Labour government, with whomever is in charge could do us more harm. Each successive Labour government since WWll, has left this country in a worse financial state than they found it. It will take a real one term wonder to straighten out the mess which the current loonies are sure to leave.
To prepare for the inevitable we have been liquidating all of our UK assets. As far as the HMRS is concerned, on paper we own very little. I have just arranged for AOP to be dismantled, crated and prepared for shipping. The end is neigh and the Aero clan is about to relocate. Need I say more?
Few will appreciate the humour in this Yorkshire Airways commercial, try it a see ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xOeDM3FSnpI&dp_isNewTab=1&dp_ref
This is before your time, but look up the "Nobody's Second Class on Southern" promotional campaign from the 1970s.
Southern eventually merged with North Central in 1979 to form Republic, then Republic merged with Northwest Orient in 1986 to form Northwest, which would merge with Delta twenty years later, after which Delta dropped Southern's original Memphis hub.
I always liked these two ads, probably because they came out when I was living in NYC and I loved both actors…RIP! I believe the AA one was for the UK market and there were a couple follow ups to it with James Gandolfini.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BZBuCHgu00M&pp=ygUSRGVsdGEgYWQgbmV3IHlvcmsg&ra=m
I only remember two of these ads.
The Air France &
The Singapore Airlines tea one.
The SQ one was classically sophisticated and perfectly captured its effortless excellent service levels that I have experienced on every flight.
Cathay had a brilliant commercial in the late 80s—followed by re-edits for several years—exuding Hong Kong's then-optimism and dynamism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBAV_eiH-U0
No one was better at producing commercials than pan am…..every song was brilliant and it topped itself with the “you can’t beat the experience “ ….and while I was a flight attendant at northwest for 35 years and we had some catch ads …pan am was the best
By 'right' do you mean, 'correct,' or geographically, or ideologically? Bah!
So, you'd prefer corporate/oligarchic pickpockets over 'socialist' pickpockets?
Liquidating? Divesting? Offshoring? To Jersey! To... Grand Cayman! To Panama!
Clan? Uh oh...
For some reason, I'm moved by this 1989 ad from United, with voiceover by Gene Hackman.
https://youtu.be/Q9tMbDnBN8M?si=6pZ-bMM1mYBcGcyi
And if "Visit Mum" from British Airways doesn't make you cry, get help:
https://youtu.be/WPcfJuk1t8s?si=n5mu1_yYlsM1w6ul
Wow. Great article.
And when American Airlines was world leading before USAir, Doug Parker and Robert Isom 100% completely destroyed the airline.
Gene Hackman for United was awesome.
Here’s a great AA “Doing What We Do Best” ad from the early 80s, when it really was more than a slogan for the carrier:
https://youtu.be/YLpu2Yzymao?si=TdOmzXBMrxCOyFbc
And at the risk of offending for lack of political correctness, you can’t overlook the Braniff Air Strip commercial from the 60s.
Yes to the BA and AA ones! Also, the BA Today, Tomorrow ad is absolutely amazing. When it comes to ads, BA deff has the best ones over the years, they always do a good job. Turkish airlines also have quite a few of good ads.