American Airlines-Avengers Superheros

AMERICAN AIRLINES - AVENGERS SUPERHEROES

In the July 2017 report, we featured American Airlines for its support for the “Stand up to Cancer” charity, where 60 cancer-fighting and cancer-surviving American Airlines employees starred in a 60 second ad, in a campaign also fronted by Stand up to Cancer ambassador, Bradley Cooper.

This year American has taken a slightly different approach in its support for the cancer charity. Staff who are cancer survivors still feature, but in addition to chronicling their stories on video, they appear on the side of a special “Avengers” themed aircraft. Why the Avengers link?

It of course reinforces the almost superhuman efforts a lot of cancer survivors have to go through, as well as the efforts of the medical staff treating them.

Then, there is the fact that the Avengers are in the news at the moment due to the arrival of Marvel’s latest superhero flick, Avengers: Infinity War.

The custom-wrapped American Airlines A321T aircraft will be in service between Los Angeles and New York.

The graphic, which is more than 50 feet long, features Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War heroes: Doctor Strange, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Captain America and Black Panther.

It also features American Airlines LAX based Customer Service agent and three-time breast cancer survivor Shandra Fitzpatrick, LAX-based Flight Attendant Michelle Ballard, Miami-based Fleet Service crew chief Juan Barquero, and Chicago-based Captain Ron France; and Stand Up To Cancer Scientific Advisor Dr. Phillip A. Sharp and SU2C researcher Dr. Marcela Maus.

In addition to the custom wrapped A321, the campaign is being supported by a movie-style poster ad, which features Chris Hemsworth, and Scarlett Johansson along with American Airlines staff and researchers. Meanwhile a “broadcast PSA” features footage from Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War, and of SU2C’s Scientific Advisor Dr. Lee J. Helman, as Shandra Fitzpatrick .

Actors Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Paul Bettany, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and Chadwick Boseman are also featured in the voice-over portion of the broadcast piece. Finally to encourage donations from regular American Airlines fliers, Airlines AAdvantage® members will receive 10 miles for every dollar donated (with a minimum $25 donation).

KEY TAKE-AWAY

This is an effective campaign and CSR initiative for a number of reasons. Like last year, American Airlines has personalised and humanised the experience of cancer survivors by telling the stories of staff members.

The staff member link makes this much more than a ‘organisation A donates to charity B’ type initiative, there is a realness and authenticity to it.

Meanwhile, linking up with the new Avengers’ movie makes the campaign that much more newsworthy. The combination of a custom-wrapped A321 (which is instantly instagrammable), the movie style poster ad and video really gives this initiative a lot of impact.