Delta Airlines showed its true colors this week when they rejected an inflight magazine ad for products made by Scottevest. The products in question are designed to “beat the system”, and avoid pricey baggage fees by using pockets to store anything from your camera to an iPad. We’ve covered Scottevest in the past, and I’ve got them in a top spot on my favorite travel product list.
When Scottevest was approached to purchase a last minute spot in the November issue of Delta’s Sky Magazine, they sent in their usual ad, featuring an X-Ray photo of their Fleece 5.0 jacket, and the title “The Most Stylish Way to Beat the System”. Hardly anything an airline would have to worry about.
Sadly, Delta Airlines did worry about it – and rejected the ad. They then rejected a revised version, at which point, Scott Jordan (the Scott in Scottevest) gave up trying to work with Delta, and took it to the Internet instead. That is where the real fun started.
[Editor’s note: Delta got in contact with the following statement:
Our discrepancy with this vendor was related only to creative standards. As publishers of SKY Magazine, Delta and MSP always reserve the right to decline advertisements which do not appropriately represent Delta Air Lines or the travel industry. ]
See, Scott Jordan is one of the most connected and social media savvy company owners I know of – and in just a few days, he’s already created more buzz about Delta rejecting his ad than the ad itself would probably get. Google has 224,000 (yes – 224 thousand) results on “Delta Scottevest ad”, high profile Twitter members like Robert Scoble are chiming in and yesterday our friends at Walletpop covered it as well.
Of course, the bottom line is that baggage fees are too important to Delta to jeopardize. Last quarter, airlines pulled in $893 million in baggage fees, and there is clearly no way they’ll do anything that will help consumers find ways to avoid paying up. Of course, they clearly didn’t expect this kind of backlash. But to be honest, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer airline.
Best of all, I’m seeing more and more people at the airport wearing products from Scottevest, so it may be too late for Delta to stop the good news spreading. To read the entire timeline of how Delta decided to censor spreading helpful information, head on over to Scott Jordan’s blog.