“Free Cocktails For Everyone”

This Southwest Airlines TV commercial was part of the company’s “Remember” campaign from 1972. A note about the early days of the so-called “love airline” and its co-founder Herb Kelleher from CBS News:

“Kelleher is legendary in the airline industry for doing things differently than the competition. Before he found himself Southwest’s pitchman, Kelleher was a lawyer retained by the airline to get it off the ground – a fight that took him all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It seemed the last thing Southwest’s competitors wanted to see was a low-cost upstart doing nothing but flying around Texas in and out of Dallas Love Field.

In 1971, ‘the love airline’ took off. At first, Southwest was known for sexy flight attendants in hot pants, which got it the attention it needed.

‘You can have a low-cost carrier and people still don’t fly it because they don’t know about it,’ Kelleher said. ‘And so, the schtick kind of fit in with getting known.'”

 

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