You might have heard about the BIG trouble some Dutch girls in orange dresses, who were sponsored by a brewery that isn’t an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup Football (or Soccer) in South Africa, got into with the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association). The sponsor’s name, Bavaria (a Dutch brewery, hence the orange dresses) was barely visible on their dresses, but two Dutch girls got arrested because the official sponsor of the World Cup is Budweiser. Guerrilla marketing this is called.
Well, they were not the only ones who had difficulties with the FIFA over an advertising campaign.
South African price fighting airline Kulula.com is not an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup and is therefore not allowed to use the words ‘World Cup’ in it’s ads. Instead Kulula used ‘that thing we dare not mention’ and ‘you know what’.
(I hope the picture will enlarge if you click on it. I’ve taken them off a certain Nick Burcher’s site.)
FIFA objected to this advertising campaign and Kulula withdrew the ads. Instead they offered Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s President, free flights.
Sepp Blatter, the homo sapiens, did not react to the offer.
Sepp Blatter the Boston Terrier did:
And Kulula, who definitely have a sense of humour, offered the free flights to Sepp the Dog and he, in return, poses for their advertisements. Kulula’s planes are painted in all sorts of different and very original ways. You’ll have to see the photos on this blog (no honestly, for instance: they’ve painted ‘Mile High Club initiation chamber’ on the outside of plane where the loo is situated. And lots of other fun remarks, at least I think it’s funny and you should follow the link. So there!).
Okay, so this is all very funny. But not as funny as the live recording of one of the Kulula pilots doing his ‘Welcome aboard’ speech that you can find somewhere on this page. You’ll have to scroll down, past the funny remarks etc. until you get to the video. Enjoy and book your next flight with Kulula.com if possible. If the plane goes down at an unexpected and unplanned moment, at least you’ll die laughing.
Jammer om te hoor! Brilliant! I wouldn't mind flying with them. They might even get me to listen to the safety anouncements.
ReplyDeleteOh this is just brilliant and fast reaction. I heard about the girls being ejected but wasnt sure what all the fuss was about. Loved this, put a smile on my dial
ReplyDeleteBrilliant is right. What a freaking riot. Don't you wish more corporate execs had a sense of humor?
ReplyDeleteRight now, the world needs all the humor that comes it's way. And, going down laughing on the fun ship does seem like a pretty good way to go.
ReplyDeleteOh, that aircraft announcement was hilarious! Love the bit about water landings! LOL!
ReplyDeleteThe second ad was good. And I love that they followed through. Apparently, not all companies are so enterprising. It seems that someone 'translated' a Sony game for Windows and the Mac, and instead of saying 'Hey, that's clever, let us buy it from you/licence you', they just slapped a 'Cease and desist' order on them. What a lost opportunity, huh?
How great that a big company has such a sense of humor. If you find an airline looking for a Screaming Mimi or Oskar, let us know!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't familiar with the story but loved the fact that a dog had that name....and he got a flight. lol
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments on mine, the toys have actually lasted very well (at least so far). Usually Zac destroys toys if you let him, they do tug quite hard as well on them which can rip some very quickly.
So far though these new ones are still intact and in the toy box. :))
Absolutely hilarious! If I ever have a choice of flying with them, I will. They deserve nothing but success!
ReplyDeleteHello! I'm sorry it's taken me roughly forever to come by and thank you for the comment on my blog. I'm the person with the duct-tape-hand story on Jim's blog (what a way to be known, "Remember me? Blood poisoning!").
ReplyDeleteOn the "Get himself out of Dutch with the Division of Motor Vehicles." thing, it's a saying used to convey, "In trouble." "I'm in Dutch with the boss." "I'm in the trouble with the boss."
Not too many people use it any longer, it's quite antiquated. However, I studied liberal arts, and therefore spew forth all sorts of archaic stuff, on a regular basis :-) I can only hope it's one of my charms.
So it's got some kind of literary root...and I say we blame it on Shakespeare, as I can longer remember the actual source, and nine times out of ten? Turns out to be Shakespeare.
Whenever you get caught seemingly making no sense, just mention Shakespeare and it's likely his fault.
I may have to ask Jim to vouch for the fact that I'm not actually insane, just prone to peculiar comments.
And it sounds like I really should be working for this particular airline. What a wonderful amount of fun. Thank you so much for the laugh :-)
(and I truly don't remember how the phrase "...in Dutch" came about...we also say, "Go Dutch." for a date in which both parties pay for their own ticket, and I don't know precisely why that came about either...but let's blame Shakespeare for that one too!)
Hi, thanks everyone for sharing the laughter (that sounds really really lame, but you know what I mean I hope) and commenting ;-)
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy it--thank you.
ReplyDelete