Cheap shots for seats

Air New Zealand recently used social-networking site Twitter to seek opinion on a new Grab-a-seat campaign, which featured six advertisements poking fun at six local destinations. The 9000 followers of Grab-a-seat were asked to “tell us what you think of these new ads.” Grab-a-seat is a website that offers heavily discounted airfares for those quick enough to snaffle the available seats up when they appear online. Adweek blogger David Griner said of the posting: “So, you’ve made some travel ads that blatantly mock the destinations you’re promoting, and possibly Christianity as well. How do you know if you’ve crossed the line? Why, just ask Twitter! It’s a commendable way to get easy input on ads before they launch more broadly, but I’m a bit surprised Air New Zealand would be ones for caution, seeing as how their flight crews are frequently naked and slathered in paint.”