In some ways, Spirit Airlines is very smart.
Here are some photos from its "eye of the tiger sale" ad, which attracted a helluva lot of notice -- and some outrage -- today, and presumably lots of website traffic. There's this one:
And here's another pic:
Here is the video itself...
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmUI_YH81SU&
And a story about it from the Orlando Sentinel.
The video, a takeoff on the Tiger Woods domestic incident/fender bender, shows a tiger -- the furry kind -- crashing an SUV into a fire hydrant, and then offers Spirit Airlines fares for $9 each way, and a "limited time only" $35 off coupon.
I don't understand use of the Eye of the Tiger theme other than Spirit opportunistically found a way to work the Tiger Woods melodrama and all its associated headlines into an ad.
Here is the Eye of the Tiger song by Survivor.
And, here is the chorus:
"It's the eye of the tiger
i'm feeling so good
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he's watching us all
With the eye of the tiger."
I can't see much tie-in with any of this to low airfares or discount coupons.
Many people have commented today that Spirit, which is, after all, an airline, was stupid to run an ad campaign associated with a crash.
But, Spirit accomplished its ends and has no worries.
It doesn't care that its $9 fares amount to bait and switch.
The airline doesn't have much brand to protect because it has been castigated for awful customer service.
It has a history of running outrageous ads.
All in all, the airline demonstrated through this ad that its marketing team is creative and can pull together a timely, headline-grabbing ad on the fly.
Look at all the buzz about the eye of the tiger ad today on Twitter.
Donald Trump famously subscribes to the theory that no publicity is bad publicity.
Spirit Airlines marketers must have read Trump's books.
In sum, it has been a pretty good day for Spirit Airlines.
Tiger, though, he's still very much in the doghouse.