AA "Nothing Special In The Air"

This morning on the CNBC show "Squawk on the Street" Forrester Analyst Henry Harteveldt demonstrated once again his knowledge of the market and a little of history. Click on the link to hear the segment including Henry's call in.

Its been a busy few days for Henry who is Forrester's point man on the Travel Category. he has been on several shows pointing out the issues surrounding the AA battles with Orbitz, Travelport and most recently Expedia.

His final throw away line was a telling one.

"American is nothing special in the air."

This refers to the 1980s AA ad campaign where AA used the tag line in all its advertising. "Something Special In the Air".
IS AA special enough to ride out this storm? As Henry opines it just might not be the case with his statements making the airlines essentially just a commodity product. And this is where I think there is a core and fundamental battle going on. Whether the airlines are truly a differentiated product or not.

So just for the record - since the Professor is a former Ad man and worked on several competing accounts at the time that this campaign appeared I thought it would be good to see a DC10 flying in AA Colours again. Not to mention some really rather outrageous hair styles - think Melanie Griffiths when she was in Working Girl!


So play the video and enjoy a little nostalgia.

Cheers