Air New Zealand challenges Southwest

[LoneStarMike]

This is too funny. Being a native Texan (y'all) - it was a little hard to understand the New Zealand accent and I had to watch it several times, but I think this is the gist of the challenge. (All hyperlinks are to youtube videos.)

Air New Zealand has an ad campaign - At Air New Zealand, Our Fares Have Nothing to Hide which is why the fare you pay includes everything. Up front.

Nothing to Hide commercial

where all the employees were nude, but they appeared to be dressed (in skin-tight clothing) because of body paint.

Awhile back, in conjuction with the ad campaign, Air New Zealand filmed some safety videos called the Bare Essentials of Safety.

Boeing 737-300 Safety Video

Knowing how fun-loving & outrageous WN folks can be, Air New Zealand's CEO has challenged Herb to find 10 of his most extroverted WN cabin crew members and fly with them to New Zealand and join 10 of Air New Zealand's cabin crew members to film the Bare Essentials of Safety Video Musical. It would include a little rap, a little country, some showtunes, be choreographed and of course, would involve body paint.

The video challenge (from two nude Air New Zealand cabin crew in body paint) has been posted on youtube.

A message for Herb Kelleher and Southwest from the Air New Zealand nothing to hide team.

I think Air New Zealand's "Nothing to Hide" Team really would tie in nicely with Southwest's "No Hidden Fees" campaign. And hey - maybe Southwest could talk to Air New Zealand about a possible code share later on down the line.

They're expecting your call, Herb.

I double-dawg dare ya!

Grab Your Bag. It's ON!

 

[does this plane go to paris]

Mike,

I think that the commericals are unique and funny, just like most of Southwest's ads.

This is what I find compelling about the ad and the challenge. While Air New Zealand may not be the largest or most well known airline, they are a legitmate, long standing, full serice airline. Most of the full service world carrier's either ignore or belittle Southwest. If you are the CEO of Lufthansa, Emirates, United, etc, you tell your Customers that you will give them 3 differenct classes of service to chose from, give you an assigned seat and will get them to almost any destination in the world on a variety of the newest latest best airlines and biggest airports. You can tell your Customer and your employees that you wouldn't be caught dead on a Southwest flight, because it's a (gasp) almost like a cattle car.

On the exact opposite end, the same CEO looks at the market share that WN or any low cost carrier in the world is taking away from these full service airlines and they tell their employee's, sorry, can't give you a raise. In fact you have to be more like Southwest and work longer, but since fuel is so high, we can't pay you hgiher wages. They are also taking away every perk from their customers, food, to purchasing box lunches, paying a fee for this, getting snagged with a penalty for changing your ticket and making the lcc's more attractive.

So, here is Air New Zealand, a member of the Star Alliance and they are snubbing every other carrier in their alliance and appealing to the the biggest phenomenon in the airline industy and telling them, let's have some fun. I find it hard to believe that the CEO of NZ did not do some sort of back channeling ahead of time and risk their reputation but it gives Southwest a perfect excuse to send 10 of their best and brightest to show off some good natured fun and free exposure.

As far as the code share, I would love to see it, but I think that the Star Alliance is already in knots and legally, US and UA have dibs on a codeshare.