Nutty JetBlue flight attendant unlikely to get entertainment deal

by Tom Johansmeyer on


How much can Steve Slater milk his 15 minutes of fame? The coverage has come quickly, and Slater has started to become a bit more comfortable with it. Reports are coming in that he wasn’t satisfied with his job (you think?), and it’s clear that this could be seen as a major opportunity for something of a career change for him.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Slater doesn’t have much of a shot at turning his career-limiting move into reality show fame:

Major talent agencies are unlikely to sign anyone who doesn’t have a background in a craft such as acting or writing. Companies that book reality TV stars and celebrities of varying degrees as guest speakers might be a more logical fit.

After he runs through the late-night talk show circuit, Slater will be finished. At that point, he’s likely to be another unemployed flight attendant … though he won’t be able to blame market conditions.
Nonetheless, talk about Slater has run through the advertising business. Chris Raih, founder and managing director of Zambezi in Los Angeles, noted:

“People around the country seem to have followed this classic go-to-hell moment with voyeuristic glee,” he said. “They want to root for him even more in a recessionary environment when many have gobbled up their anger.”

The real risk with using Slater in a commercial, according to Raih, is that it takes a few weeks to shot one, and even more time to get the campaign off the ground. By then, he’ll probably be irrelevant.

Steven Slater on airport stunt: I thought about it for 20 years!

by Tom Johansmeyer on


Former(?) JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater may not have stepped onto the plane with the intention of grabbing a beer and dropping the emergency chute, but it wasn’t far from his mind. The New York Times got a few moments with the now (in)famous flight attendant in the elevator of the Upper East Side apartment building where Slater was camped out after being released on bail.

In this exclusive – and enviable – interview, Slater told the Times, “I’ve thought about it – for 20 years I’ve thought about it. But, you never think you’re going to do it.”

JetBlue flight attendant hiring: police and firefighters preferred

by Tom Johansmeyer on

“Turn off your electronic devices” may soon be followed by “Up against the wall!” on JetBlue flights. The airline is looking for flight attendants who have real backgrounds in safety: it’s targeting former police officers and firefighters for flight attendant jobs. JetBlue has reportedly hired “several hundred” of New York‘s finest over the past decade, and up to 10 percent of the cabin crew has had experience in emergency response work.

The first JetBlue flight attendant class included a former New York City firefighter, which caused the airline to think more about this talent pool. After all, police and firefighters are trained in dealing with emergencies, making them inherently more qualified than the flight attendant candidates airlines pull off the street.

So, I need to know: what’s next? Will American scrap its existing hiring model and look for green berets?

[photo by See ming-Lee via Flickr]

Travel missing among fastest growing Facebook pages

by Tom Johansmeyer on

What happened to the hotels, resorts and destinations? These naturals for social media didn’t make the cut on All Facebook’s list of the fastest growing Facebook pages. Media and celebrities dominated the list, which consists of Facebook pages not on All Facebook’s leaderboard, but even there, there isn’t a travel-related site until #37, the destination- and company-agnostic “I need a vacation!!!”

Of course, there is no shortage of travel content available on Facebook, from Gadling‘s page to resorts such as Turtle Island on Fiji. And, social media marketing is starting to creep into thetourism and travel business. There have been some successes, such as JetBlue and Southwest, but the gains haven’t been as profound as in other industries, particularly media. Hotels are lagging. A quick poke around shows that the W Hotels page, for example, has a bit more than 10,000 “likers.”

The travel business is taking steps toward a more robust social media presence, but there’s still plenty of ground to cover. For now, it looks like it’s up to traveler to fill in the gaps! How do you use social media on the road … or to book your trips? Leave a comment below to let us know.

Mixed Messages, Part II: The role of the flight attendant

by Tom Johansmeyer on
It’s almost embarrassing to admit that the short, comical (and obviously very powerful) JetBlue video that I noticed on a recent flight left me with so much food for thought. Maybe it’s the fact that a stick figure chased a little red dot into the overhead compartment … I’m not sure. What does matter is that it had an effect. In addition to noticing the opportunity for increased service with no expense, it also occurred to me that the flight attendant is being positioned as a service employee … rather than the final arbiter of the rules or safety czar.
This made me think: how secondary is the service role to the primary safety responsibility of these airline employees? We’ve all seen plenty of commercials with smiling flight attendants eager to please their passengers. Yet, we have yet to see an airline invest its marketing dollars in a 30-second spot chronicling the exploits of the heroic flight attendant.

But, wouldn’t that be a great idea?

Think of how it would play out … a la David Hasselhoff with a torpedo buoy, red shorts and a mission to save a life. We’d see her (or him) burst forth from the galley, flotation device in hand and a determined look on her face (wow, this really is starting to sound like a Baywatch knockoff). “Safety First,” I’d label the ad campaign, with the only service highlighted being the gallant saving of a life.

What more could you ask for? I don’t know about you, but C.J. running up the aisle to guide the passengers sitting in the exit row is a pretty compelling reason to choose an airline.

Or, we could all face the fact that the service aspect of the gig isn’t really as secondary as it seems.