Chado-Design.com

Earlier this week when JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, fed up with abusive passengers, snapped and quit his job in the likely most grandiose way imaginable it could have been a massive PR nightmare for the low cost airliner. After all, after a confrontation with a rude customer, he reportedly got on the PA system and declared: “To the passenger who just called me a motherf***er, f**k you. I’ve been in this business 28 years, and I’ve had it.” Then, after cursing out the entire flight walked into the galley, grabbed some beers, activated the plane’s emergency chute, slid down, and ran to his car. His stunt later got him arrested and he now faces criminal charges including criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. When authorities showed up at his house to apprehend Slater he was “in the midst of having sexual relations.”

One would assume having your flight attendant publically curse out the entire flight, take alcohol, disregard safety procedures, and then get arrested while having sex would be terrible press and reflect poorly on the company. Luckily for JetBlue, it has received the opposite reception. Slater has become a modern day folk hero, sick of taking crap from rude, selfish, disrespectful people. Instead of damaging the JetBlue brand he seems to have invigorated it. People are talking about the event; it has received national coverage over the last few days, and Slater is currently the number one trending topic on Twitter but it is in a positive light. His facebook fan page has over 100,000 fans and there are other pages that include “Steven Slater Legal Defense Fund” and “I hate the motherf***er who called Steven Slater a motherf***er.” Slater even has his own folk songs; there are multiple versions of “The Ballad of Steven Slater” up on YouTube.

Like a modern day Howard Beal, he was “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore” and the American people love him for it. His story seems to resonate with the millions of Americans who currently or at one time had a customer service job and forced to deal with nasty, intolerable customers. Luckily for JetBlue, they have not experienced a repeat of their 2007 PR debacle following the Valentines Day snow storms, instead they have spawned a modern folk hero for the tired and powerless who isn’t afraid to say what we all have wanted to at one point or another.

There are very few products out there that are incredibly hard to market and differentiate using video as a medium. Video is so versatile it allows for endless possibilities in motion, graphics, and music allowing you capture the use of your product and attach emotional appeal. Until the rise of Tivo, it has been seen as a surefire, indestructible medium where a very small number of products find it difficult to utilize. Paint however, is one of those few products. It is no easy task communicating the texture and brilliance of your paint’s colors on a standard definition TV or monitor. That is why the newest campaign for European paint company Dulux is so great. After six months of planning, working, and editing they have finally launched an amazing television commercial/community project that is both memorable and motivational. The “Let’s Colour Project” is their worldwide initiative to transform ugly grey spaces covered in dirt and graffiti in urban communities around the globe with colorful paint. By rallying the community’s support with over 500 volunteers and 1,800 gallons of Dulux paint they took to the streets to brighten neighborhoods. They recorded the community event over a four month period in the UK, France, Brazil, and India and using time lapse photography developed an unforgettable two minute commercial.

Not only did they produce a brilliant TV commercial but the meat of their campaign is the real places around the world that have been completely transformed with their vibrant colors. The commercial is just the beginning for this ongoing campaign; they plan to release a documentary and other web based content. This campaign is a great achievement on many levels; it is excellent PR for the paint brand, they have facilitated unforgettable neighborhood events with their brand as the centerpiece, have literally left their mark all over the cities, and have participated in a large scale urban renewal project. It will be great to see how the campaign continues and if they take on another similar project in other cities but for those four months the world truly was their canvas.