Lufthansa - These Germans

Lufthansa - These Germans

Playing to cultural stereotypes is a very risky game when it comes to global advertising campaigns. Especially when having a French person to talk about the stereotypicality of Germans. But it is with this brash insensitivity, there is great opportunity for carefully crafted humour, and even more so when it is a German company sending up the Germans’ themselves.

Notoriously Lufthansa has been a very straight laced and business-professional company when it comes to their brand image. So when a new advertising campaign adds a little humour, people do sit up and take notice.

The video features a disdainful French businessman goes from hotel to business class while pointing out everything the Germans do right along the way — always so precise, punctual, and perfectly organized, of course. “This constant perfectionism?” he asks at the end, “fantastique.”

However, this isn’t the first campaign that has injected a bit of humour into the Lufthansa brand. With their flat beds that were released last year, a softer, more relaxed campaign was released to showcase the product. Last year also featured an advert starring the Bayern- München football team with a child who is desperate for an autograph, but rushes past the football team, and goes straight to the flight crew for their signature instead.

It seems the latest advertising video is a step futher in the same direction, showing a deeper shift in Lufthansa’s brand image.