United Airlines: “Fly the Friendly Skies”

In 1965 Leo Burnett created the iconic tagline for United Airlines that would remain in use for the next 31 years.[1] The tagline - “Fly the Friendly Skies” would go on to remain the company’s slogan until 1996. The slogans that followed included “It’s time to Fly” in 2004 and “Let’s fly together” in 2010. However, in September 2013, United Airlines announced they would be bringing back the “Fly the Friendly Skies” slogan to show their commitment and dedication to customer satisfaction. Interestingly enough, this change in slogans and renewed devotion to consumer interests comes after an onslaught of complaints, dissatisfied customers and a barrage of YouTube videos scrutinizing the airlines commitment to customer service. The revitalized “Fly the Friendly Skies” campaign launched in September 2013, is United Airlines largest marketing campaign in more than a decade. [2] The new campaign includes radio, cable television commercials, magazine, newspaper, billboard and social media ads. United Airlines’ senior vice president of marketing – Tom O’Toole said that “'Flyer-friendly' resonated in feedback from customers and co-workers," he went on to say, "Our new brand campaign expresses the customer focus of all of United's investments." 2 Tom O’ Toole was also quoted saying that the airline returned to the old slogan, because it wanted to “Re-establish United’s position as the world’s leading customer-focused airline,” and to “Say to customers, co-workers and competitors that United is back in the game in a big way.”2 According to The Chicago Tribune, "The airline needs a fresh start after a tough period following the 2010 combination with Continental. It's had a number of high-profile technology glitches as it switched to a unified system, which CEO Jeff Smisek admitted cost it some customers. Its traffic has