Advertionalism In American Airlines

1000 Words2 Pages

Nowadays, there are many airlines competing with each other. They choose different strategies in advertising their services in order to attract as many clients as possible. Some companies in their ads make an accent on exceptional features of an airline and its luxury. Such advertisements are more focused on keeping the attention of wealthy and prudent people who value their time and comfort. American Airlines is a great example of a company using this strategy: it proclaimed its exceptionalism in ads with themes like “Something special in the air” and “We’re American Airlines. Doing what we do best” (nytimes.com). Their advertisements have always been promoting an incredible quality of the services and a great respect for its high-valued …show more content…

However, these advertisement campaigns are aimed toward a young population which is more likely to understand such fun and defiant statements. Ryanair, an Irish low-cost airline, decided to take a risk and has published several provocative advertisements with extremely controversial slogans. According to analyst Vuk Bojović, they were looking at a powerful and sharp message that would have two purposeful effects. First of all, to get the attention of those who only care for low prices but not about the luxury of the flights, and to define a brand not necessarily as insulting or aggressive, but rather honest with their customers (brandingmagazine.com). In the first ad, we can see two famous actors, Gregory Peck and Neil Patrick Harris and airports with American Airline jets in the background. Both men look the way people would imagine someone “successful”: they are extremely neat, wear expensive suits and represent some kind of a splendid lifestyle, the one that famous people and …show more content…

This advertisement doesn’t contain any pictures of famous people or vivid illustrations, it only has a text in a form of dialog between a typical customer and Ryanair airline. “Customer” is resenting about being charged for tea he or she doesn’t even like, and the company responds saying that “With prices that cheap, shut the f*ck up.” This ad clearly uses a pathos appeal. According to Rhetoric Matters, it supposed to evoke an emotional response from a reader by appealing to empathy, fear, humor, or some other emotion (McIntyre 88). This advertisement is very catchy due to its cheeky style and obscene language that is not commonly used in advertisements. People pay their attention to this bold statement, and on one hand it makes them feel like the company doesn’t care about its customers at all, but on another one that it really has extremely cheap prices. This resonance of emotions has a powerful effect. However, such advertising can be offensive to elder customers that prefer respect for themselves. That can definitely coerce some of them to choose another airline, the one that can provide a great service and will treat everyone carefully and respectfully. Overall, this advertisement is excessively honest, that makes it somewhat

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