Our cover story - WestJet's new ad campaign

WestJet - Treating people like people

When flying economy, people often use a less than flattering term to describe it - ‘cattle class.’ Added to that you get phrases like ‘herded like cattle’, or ‘treated like cattle’, or you could be just ‘one of the herd.’

8. That idea - that some airlines treat passengers, especially ones who don’t pay a premium to travel at the front of the plane - like cattle and not people, formed the basis of WestJet’s latest advertising campaign.

In the ad which immediately catches your attention, cows are seen milling around an airport, with the accompanying soundtrack being New Order’s Blue Monday . The cows can be seen at the check-in counters, the luggage carousels, and in the departure areas.

And at each stage the cows are met with eye rolling or shoulder shrugging staff who present them with various problems such as the flight being overbooked, or delays.

The video then cuts to human beings in the same airport being processed by smiling WestJet check-in staff with the concluding message being, ‘an airline should treat people like people.’

WestJet finally backs this up by mentioning its commitment to not over-book, to its record as having the best on time performance, and it’s Tripadvisor ranking as being the best airline in Canada.

A quote in the official company press release makes a nod to the transition WestJet has been making over the past year, which has included the delivery of new Dreamliners, and the introduction of a new business class cabin:

According to Richard Bartrem, Vice-President Marketing Communications, “We want the travelling public to know that as we become a global network carrier, we will never lose sight of the caring WestJet touch.

“Travel can be unpredictable and this campaign represents how we will always try to put ourselves in our guests shoes by delivering the caring guest experience that has made WestJet stand out from the herd.”

Developed by Canadian creative agency Rethink, the campaign consists of a comprehensive digital and out-of-home presence that will run from coastto-coast across Canada. The campaign launched on October 21, the night of Canada’s federal election.

The thinking behind WestJet’s ‘treating people like people’ is quite similar to that in the recent ‘Alright Brothers’ campaign from JetBlue, which we covered in our last issue.

In that campaign, JetBlue reimagined a past where the Wright Brothers who invented aviation at the turn of the 20th Century, were followed in the 1920s by the ‘Alright Brothers’ who invented the commercial airline business, complete with everything that JetBlue says in wrong with other airlines today.

The message was that while other airlines follow the ethos of mediocrity and make do pioneered by the Alright Brothers, JetBlue excels in customer service and standards.

Both are great campaigns featuring strong, memorable creatives to make their point, and both JetBlue in the US and WestJet in Canada are challenger brands looking to set themselves apart from the competition.

However, much as we enjoyed JetBlue’s campaign, on balance WestJet’s ‘treating people like people’ was probably stronger. It made us watch it over and over to look for cow-related details we might have missed, it was just as good, if not better when watching it for a third or fourth time.

The idea of having cows star in the film is different, and it is the kind of thing that will get people talking the next day at work or in the coffee shop. It ties into ideas that everyone can understand (‘cattle class’, ‘follow the herd’ etc), it requires no further explanation. And finally, you can see how the whole cow / cattle theme could be extended into the future for further campaigns.

For that reason, we’ve made WestJet’s ‘treating people like people’ our cover story for the month.