October 16, 2014

BLAH Airlines Ad From Virgin Breaks A Major Rule Of Advertising By Simulating Bad Flights [Video]

You've probably had a nightmare flight or two over the course of your life. Sometimes it's screaming children; sometimes it's an obnoxious drunk passenger; or sometimes you're just flying on something like BLAH airlines, the fictional air travel service created by Virgin Airlines for a new five-hour YouTube commercial. You can watch a one-minute trailer the BLAH airlines epic below.

Why would Virgin want to subject you to so much time aboard BLAH airlines? The airline is looking to simulate what it really feels like to be stuck for five hours on one of the planes that BLAH caricatures. The marketing strategy doesn't always go for outright hyperbole -- a lot of the things the Virgin commercial mocks have some truth to them. Many discount airlines really do offer nothing more than peanuts and stale coffee; uncontrollable kids really do bounce their seats back and forth for hours; and sometimes your flight really does seem endless. Stretched to a ridiculous length of five hours, Virgin Airlines' commercial is a smart way to catch attention, but it's also an incredibly surreal experience if you can get yourself to sit through more than 20 minutes of it -- especially because all of the actors are crash test dummies with disembodied voices.

Virgin has extended its campaign to social media platforms with BLAH Airlines Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook -- all of which feature the same wry sense of humor seen in the video. If skimming through five hours of life on BLAH Airlines is too much for you, a lot of the bests gags can be found by reading BLAH's tweets.

We believe personal space is important when flying. That's why each seat has an armrest.
— BLAH Airlines (@BLAHAirlines) October 15, 2014

Your BLAH Airlines miles are always redeemable for air travel. (Blackout dates: Feb 29, summer, 3rd Wed of every month, days ending in "y")
— BLAH Airlines (@BLAHAirlines) October 15, 2014

Today's snack options are: Peanuts. pic.twitter.com/2diP2hFroW — BLAH Airlines (@BLAHAirlines) October 15, 2014

Spend $5,000 this month with your BLAH Airlines Beige Card to get a free bonus bag of peanuts on your next flight. (Subject to availability) — BLAH Airlines (@BLAHAirlines) October 14, 2014