The airline industry has had a hard time with its' public image over the past few years. Problems such as Southwest Airline's "modesty" scandal, Jet Blue's software and delay problems, as well as multiple spoofs from various TV shows on different airlines and their customer service and processing, have helped to make flying seem like a horrible experience. Despite these problems the industry, despite some cutbacks, is miraculously not bankrupt. Now, however, United Airlines is facing a new sort of problem.
Dave Carroll, a Canadian country singer, flew on United Airlines in spring of 2008 from a connecting flight in Chicago to Nebraska. Before the plane took off, a passenger behind Carroll looked out the window and saw guitars being thrown. Despite Carroll alerting three employees about what was happening, nothing was done and a year longs struggle began. At the end of the struggle Carroll was told that he would not be compensated for his guitar that was broken.
Carroll's response to this was simply that he would make three videos about United and his experience. The first of these videos, "United Breaks Guitars: 1", was released in July of 2009. As of today, this video has had over 5,000,000 views. The second video, "United Breaks Guitars: 2", was released only a few weeks ago and has already had more than a quarter million views. Although, many who have viewed the second video, according to multiple blogs and comments on YouTube, have said that it doesn't have the appeal and luster of the first video. Two days after the release of "United Breaks Guitars: 1" Carroll released a statement on YouTube explaining that United had gotten in contact with him and had offered him compensation for his broken guitar. Carroll's response was to give the money to a charity and let them know what charity received the money.
United's response? They did donate the money to a charity. Aside from that, however, United has been extremely limited in responding in any way. I was unable to find any information on a United response or spin to try to resolve this. I assume the theory they are working on now is that it will hopefully just blow over. This, depending on how the third video goes, may be a bad choice of strategy. If the third video flops, then United may end up off the hook. If, however, the video and song are a success, United may be headed for an even bigger disaster.
Although the music, and this particular experience, is a huge part of carrying this on for so long, I do not believe it is the driving force behind this phenomenon. This is, after all, not a singular event. "Mad TV" for years had been depicting United Airlines as incompetent and terrible with customer service. The fact that so many people have had bad experiences on United, as well as other airlines, Pushes this entire thing forward. Many of the comments left on the video explain personal experience with various airlines. This is just a vehicle that has carried all of this frustration.
Carroll's attitude, despite his initial anger and frustration, has been happy and light. Repeatedly he has been quoted as saying that he has no ill will towards United, and has demonstrated this in many ways. Only a few days after the release of his first video, Carroll made a statement saying that Ms. Irwig, one of the employees at United which he had to deal with, was receiving unfair criticism and asked that everyone give her a break because she was being a good employee for United.
Even the light-hearted nature of the videos helps the public to have a good time with them. It is not simply a man complaining about a company, but he is having fun and joking about what happened. In fact, in Carrols own blog, he thanks United for what they did for him. It is this attitude, coupled with social media outlets like YouTube, which allowed Carroll to be such a success.
Not only was this video viewed on YouTube, but blogs were written about it, both by Carroll, and others who found it to be interesting. It was discussed on twitter. Years ago this would not have been possible. The best that could have happened is Carroll could have complained in a song performed it at his concerts. There would have been no organization or hit to the industry. It is because of these many free media outlets on the internet, that Carroll, this story and his videos were successful.
