Airlines, Shoes, PR, and Weblogs

Flying always has its problems and there's always something to complain about. Most times, you just bitch to your friends about it. But it you have a weblog and you write about your experiences with an airline, or any product or service for that matter, it's not just your friend who gets to hear the story.

Kristin is a Madpony Girl. What's a Madpony girl, you ask? A Madpony Girl is a girl (two actually, sisters) who has a web site and writes about her life (college, her shoes, living in the South, etc). Kristin just took a Southwest Airlines flight from her hometown of Oklahoma City to Phoenix Arizona. Great flight. Good service. But when she landed, things didn't go so well. The airline lost her bags.

Now, if you know Kristen, you know she has a lot of shoes. LOTS of shoes. She can't live without her shoes. So, what's a girl on a trip to Arizona to do without shoes? She begs Southwest to help her on her weblog while chiding the airline at the same time.

"now, i would imagine that you're the kind of multibillion dollar corporation who really wants to know your customers, so let me tell you a little about myself.

i'm 5'8, i'm a college junior, I CANNOT SURVIVE FOR ONE WEEK WITH ONLY ONE PAIR OF SHOES.

makeup is easily replaceable. clothes are bit harder, but i am in scottsdale, the shopping capital of the american desert. i am skeptical of finding another perfect swimsuit, as that can often be somewhat difficult. but there is no way i could replace my collection of beautiful and exotic shoes and sandals.

please hurry southwest. i just don't know what i would do without my cute little cobians. and my bc shoes. and my reefs. and my little esprits with the flowers and the maddens and the little black sandals and the nm70s.

(not so) patiently waiting,

kristin"

A sad story indeed. Innocuous? Maybe. But what happens when hundreds of thousands of people are publishing weblogs? What happens when an ad campaign becomes pointless because everyone can poke a whole in it because they all know the "real" story because they are all reading other people'sweblogs who have had first hand experience with the brand? Kristin was very polite in her criticism. But we all know most people are not that polite. It's something to think about, marketers.

I'd link directly to Kristen's story but her links are broken. Go the Madpony homepage and find the post for Monday, June,2 2003.
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