General Lee
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- Aug 24, 2002
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ATA Airlines' anti-Oakland ad may not fly
Associated Press
NEW YORK - "There is no there there," Gertrude Stein once sniffed of her childhood hometown of Oakland, Calif.
ATA Airlines thinks travelers looking to fly between New York and San Francisco may feel the same way.
In a radio advertisement that's aired in the New York area, the low-fare carrier touts that its flights take passengers directly to San Francisco, not Oakland - an apparent gibe at fast-growing rival JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU).
Attacking the "weak spot" in its competitor's business plan is the right direction, according to several marketing experts.
But ATA Airlines veers off course by also taking a swipe at Oakland itself, saying that being sold a ticket to Oakland when you want to fly to San Francisco is "kind of like a restaurant serving you the gristle part of a steak because, well, it's right next to the meat."
"It's a neat idea to try and turn customers against JetBlue, which obviously has the edge right now," Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communication at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, said. "But the dangerous part is comparing Oakland to the fat on steak. You're asking for trouble from that community. It's dumb to cut off that constituency."
Mignon Monroe, an Oakland native living in Jersey City, N.J., said she finds the ad insulting and wouldn't book another flight on ATA Airlines, which is owned by ATA Holdings Corp., Indianapolis.
"It's obvious that whoever thought this ad was a good idea wasn't really familiar with the Bay Area or its residents," said Monroe, a frequent flier between the East and West coasts. "The snobbish mentality that suggests San Francisco is the only destination in the Bay Area is ignorant and shortsighted."
Rick Larsen, ATA Airlines' vice president of advertising and sales, played down the significance of the Oakland insult.
"If your ultimate destination is Oakland that's fine," he said. "We want to push the fact that we take you right into San Francisco."
The radio spot is part of a new ATA advertising campaign created with Romani Brothers, a new Chicago ad agency the airline hired earlier this year, replacing Publicis Groupe's (PUB) Publicis, of New York, in a bid to cut costs.
Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown shrugged off the radio ad's barb.
"It's a good gimmick to get people in to San Francisco," Brown said in an interview. "But if you want to avoid the fog, come to Oakland."
The mayor pointed out that the flow of passenger traffic at Oakland airport is growing twice as fast than at San Francisco International, in large part because Oakland has a lot less fog.
It has only just begun--as the LCC's get bigger---they will attack each other more and more.
Bye Bye--General Lee
Associated Press
NEW YORK - "There is no there there," Gertrude Stein once sniffed of her childhood hometown of Oakland, Calif.
ATA Airlines thinks travelers looking to fly between New York and San Francisco may feel the same way.
In a radio advertisement that's aired in the New York area, the low-fare carrier touts that its flights take passengers directly to San Francisco, not Oakland - an apparent gibe at fast-growing rival JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU).
Attacking the "weak spot" in its competitor's business plan is the right direction, according to several marketing experts.
But ATA Airlines veers off course by also taking a swipe at Oakland itself, saying that being sold a ticket to Oakland when you want to fly to San Francisco is "kind of like a restaurant serving you the gristle part of a steak because, well, it's right next to the meat."
"It's a neat idea to try and turn customers against JetBlue, which obviously has the edge right now," Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communication at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, said. "But the dangerous part is comparing Oakland to the fat on steak. You're asking for trouble from that community. It's dumb to cut off that constituency."
Mignon Monroe, an Oakland native living in Jersey City, N.J., said she finds the ad insulting and wouldn't book another flight on ATA Airlines, which is owned by ATA Holdings Corp., Indianapolis.
"It's obvious that whoever thought this ad was a good idea wasn't really familiar with the Bay Area or its residents," said Monroe, a frequent flier between the East and West coasts. "The snobbish mentality that suggests San Francisco is the only destination in the Bay Area is ignorant and shortsighted."
Rick Larsen, ATA Airlines' vice president of advertising and sales, played down the significance of the Oakland insult.
"If your ultimate destination is Oakland that's fine," he said. "We want to push the fact that we take you right into San Francisco."
The radio spot is part of a new ATA advertising campaign created with Romani Brothers, a new Chicago ad agency the airline hired earlier this year, replacing Publicis Groupe's (PUB) Publicis, of New York, in a bid to cut costs.
Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown shrugged off the radio ad's barb.
"It's a good gimmick to get people in to San Francisco," Brown said in an interview. "But if you want to avoid the fog, come to Oakland."
The mayor pointed out that the flow of passenger traffic at Oakland airport is growing twice as fast than at San Francisco International, in large part because Oakland has a lot less fog.
It has only just begun--as the LCC's get bigger---they will attack each other more and more.
Bye Bye--General Lee
