There’s a gem of an observation in Arlie Hochschild’s classic book, The Managed Heart. She observes that, at the same time that airlines try to ensure that planes take off with every last seat occupied, advertising for air travel typically does not depict fully booked flights. Frequent passengers covet the flight with an empty seat to their left or right, so marketers make sure that ads and commercials suggest that they might get lucky.
Here’s how American Airlines depicts the experience of flying (from a Google Image search of “cabin” on aa.com):
What a great example of not-quite-truth in advertising.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 12
Elena — August 6, 2013
The last three pictures are very obviously not depicting tourist class...
Anna — August 6, 2013
If passengers are flying business or first class, as it appears in these pictures (with the possible exception of the first one), they do have a high likelihood of having an empty seat next to them. And I think the target audience for all these ads is the one that can afford business or first class, and can be choosy about their airline; the economy class passenger will look for the most optimal combination of affordable tickets and convenient flights/airports/layover time. As an economy class flyer, there are a couple of airlines I've vowed never to use again, but for the most part, ads like these are not going to influence my choice of ticket purchase. And even in economy, it's not exactly a rarity to have an empty seat next to you, or even to be on a relatively empty flight. I've spent half my life in airports, and I would say my experiences of being on fully booked flights and having an empty seat next to me is split fairly evenly. It's definitely not the kind of outright misleading lie that you often observe in advertising.
Ricky — August 6, 2013
None of the ads show anyone having to sit next to a fat person either.
Brutus — August 7, 2013
These four images seem cherrypicked in the sense that most of the images from that search that are of aircraft interiors have no people in them at all.
http://www.aa.com/content/images/production/aircraft/773main_cabin_seats_lg.jpg
http://www.aa.com/content/images/production/aircraft/773bus_class_bed_lg.jpg
http://www.aa.com/content/images/production/aircraft/a321_a319_b737_first_class_back_lg.jpg
http://www.aa.com/content/images/production/aircraft/A321_transcon_first_class_front_lg.jpg
http://www.aa.com/content/images/aboutUs/ourPlanes/777_business_586_3.jpg
http://www.aa.com/content/images/production/aircraft/737_FC-seats.jpg
bellacoker — August 8, 2013
I have thought before, while waiting to get on a plane, that if the seats at the gate were as small and uncomfortable as the seats on the plane no one would stand for it.
Lilly — June 20, 2023
Any advertisement for anything is always a little embellished, hence the many memes about expectations and reality. For so many years of traveling, I never expect anything special and sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. My latest discovery is renting a car at the airport, which I now take only on this website.