Friday Frivolity: Leonard Flies Again
Leonard v. PepsiCo. has become a teaching classic. The advertising stunt has been imitated for a new generation by Liquid Death, which actually gave a customer a jet. And now, Frontier Airline is seeking to capitalize on Pepsi’s litigation-inducing ad campaign by featuring John Leonard himself on a new Super Bowl ad for Frontier.
Lea Krivinskas Shepard has provided us with links to additional information from Frontier at this site, including this additional ad.
The gist is that Frontier will let you use your airmiles (or points) from other promotions to fly on Frontier. Mr. Leonard has 7 million notional Pepsi Points form his ill-fated scheme to get himself a Harrier jump jet. Frontier show him cashing in his chips for a lifetime (we presume) of free flights on Frontier. He even gets to bring his dog along.
I think this is a brilliant ad campaign for an airline that is so bad even the other airlines remark on how bad it is. A splashy all-in ad during the Super Bowl can take Frontier all the way from Diet Rite to Tab in terms of brand recognition.
I have a few notes. First, Mr. Leonard does not have 7 million Pepsi Points. He never had 7 million Pepsi Points. He had, as I recall, 15 Pepsi Points and $700,000, which equated to 7 million Pepsi Points but were not 7 million Pepsi Points. Okay, so that’s a problem that does not really detract from the effectiveness of the ad.
More problematic, I think, is the fact that Mr. Leonard is shown happily flying on Frontier flights that are empty, other than him and his dog. While we all enjoy flying on flights that are not full, I think most people would have concerns about being the only passenger on a passenger jet, and the empty plane feeds into the common belief that nobody wants to fly on Frontier. I was just shopping for flights to Atlanta last week, and the cheapest flights were Frontier flights. I did not even consider them. Now that Southwest is no longer Southwest, perhaps I will one day.
Finally, some latter-day Leonard might soon be going after Frontier for its own whimsical ad. Your commercial suggests that I get to take my dog with me using my points. Is that true? Better still, it suggests that Frontier will place an image of my dog on the tail of its aircraft. Is that true? There is tiny print about how terms and conditions apply and that same print refers to Frontier’s website for details of how its Miles program works. Is that adequate notice of the terms and conditions to override the ad’s message, which a latter-day Leonard might take seriously?
Finally, while the commercial blares about how upgrades actually happen, there is find print that says that the upgrades are “subject to availability.” The print is tiny and isn’t on screen very long. That’s likely not reasonable notice. But perhaps Frontier would welcome a Leonard-like lawsuit. Advertising history repeats itself, first as screwball comedy, then as a class action. The only thing worse that being talked about is not being talked about.
