The budget carrier Spirit Airlines is having a celebration, and they want YOU to come 69 the friendly skies with them, doesn’t that sound like a hot thing you want to cross of your bucket list? They are doing this because they have recently added a sixty-ninth airplane to their fleet, and if their website is any indication, the folks at Spirit have been boning up for this new addition to their family for quite a while now: We’ve been waiting to hit 69 planes for years. It’s our favorite number - ever since we were twelve and found that magazine under our brother’s bed (the one with the fantastic articles). #69 is perfect: just the right size, with a cockpit that’s in your face (because it’s bright yellow). Use your mouth to spread the word: Spirit is in an even better position to get you where you’re going. We’re popping an epic Bare Fare in celebration! $69.00* round trip!
In a world with so much advertising competing for our attention, sometimes you have to be willing to push the edge of the good taste envelope and risk creating (or perhaps hope to create) outrage. The fact that I’m writing about Spirit Airlines is indication that what they’re doing is effective- they certainly caught my attention.
From a marketing standpoint, if you believe that any publicity is good publicity, then Spirit’s not terribly subtle campaign of barely concealed sexual allusions has been pretty successful. I find it rather amusing, though I suspect that some of the more sexually repressed among us might fail to see the humor in it.
I love that Spirit is willing to do something that pushes the bounds of good taste in an effort to generate buzz…because it’s not as if a discount airline can sell customer service or amenities. When you’re the airborne equivalent of a cattle car, you’ve got to be creative about how you sell yourself…and this isn’t the first time Spirit has used sexually suggested advertising.
Yes, “Many Unbelievably Fantastic Fares” combined with “diving destinations.” I probably don’t have to spell out the allusion to y’all. It probably won’t come as a surprise that Spirit’s marketing folks are also enamored of “MILF”- “Many Islands, Low Fares.”
This is what happens when you want to be noticed and you have junior high school boys writing your advertising copy.
