Switching to assigned seating was a huge moment in Southwest’s 50 year history. The only problem? Our big announcement was something that literally every other airline has already done. So, we embraced the elephant in the room. In a move only Southwest would try to pull off, we made fun of ourselves. We announced assigned seating to the world like we were revolutionizing air travel forever. And celebrated like we just landed on the moon.
This could’ve been an email. People in testing said so. Instead, we shot it like a Super Bowl spot with Brian Billow and blasted Laura Branigan’s “Gloria!” from the mountaintops.