This strip is in reference to the recent brouhaha between filmmaker Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines.
This thing has already been described ad nauseum on countless other blogs, so I’ll limit this to the short version. Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, etc) had bought two tickets on a Southwest flight from Oakland to Burbank. In an effort to get home quicker, he decided to get on standby for an earlier flight, which only had one seat available. Once he was seated, he was informed he was a “person of size” and needed to another seat, which there was none. They essentially pulled him from the flight for the safety and benefit of the other passengers.
What resulted is a case study in how social media can rock a brand to its core, but also how it can be used effectively to combat the effects. At the time, I think Southwest had about 25,000 followers (someone fact-check me on that), and Smith had 1.6 MILLION. This was a fact that the filmmaker wasted no time in disclosing. In his podcast explanation, he pretty much said, “you should know I’ve got over a million followers and a really big mouth” (paraphrased). Clearly the Southwest staff on duty that day was unaware of who they were deeming “too fat” for their airline.
Almost immediately, Smith started twittering. And twittering, and twittering. And twittering some more. Southwest handled it as well as could be expected, I suppose. They offered apologies via Twitter and their blog, and even (eventually) called Smith directly.
It remains to be seen, whether this will have a lasting effect on Southwest’s business. They’re often referred to as the commuter bus of the skies. So maybe their regular customers will take their chances with poor service to save a few bucks. But as of today, Southwest now has over million followers, which is obviously a direct result of the controversy.
But on the flipside, as I write this, a Google search for “Southwest Air” yields a photo of Kevin Smith in the #3 position. The moral of the story? Don’t f**k with someone with more followers than you.
Update: This strip featured on Mashable on 8/10/10!
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I agree! They should have kicked someone who had less than 1.6 million followers off of the airplane. Maybe they could have picked a mother with children to free up even more seats? I mean, Kevin Smith's a *celebrity*, we have to make way for him! He's made valuable contributions to society!
He bought two tickets and had a guaranteed seat on a particular flight. He decided to go on standby for a different flight to take a gamble on freeing up some time. He lost the gamble and the airline enforced its policies, which are controversial but haven't seemed to negatively affect business. This is just a self-important person throwing a tantrum.
I fail to see how the moral of the story is as you say it is. Southwest seems to have benefited greatly by increasing the number of followers from the event. They also seemed to respond quickly and earnestly to what Kevin had to say, and went as far as to publicly explain the policy that led to Kevin's removal from a seat. In the end, Southwest applied their policy without preferential treatment or malice. They did this before it went public, which shows character. The fact that the airline responded personally to Kevin also shows that they tried to address the situation as best they could. In the end, really, it's Kevin that seems unreasonable here in continuing to harp on the issue because he was mad.
Owen, ddavis2000: I tend to agree with you both. The post/comic was not so much about who was right or wrong, but of the impact social media is having on customer service. Things are so immediate anymore that all brands had better figure out their “social emergency preparedness” strategies sooner than later.
For the record, I do think Southwest did the right thing in their response. I do think the employees in question were over zealous, if not tactless. And most of all, I think Kevin Smith blew the entire thing out of proportion and later, seemed almost ashamed he'd flogged this event into the ground.
I'm no Kevin Smith fan, but your facts are a bit off. He buys two tickets so that he doesn't have people bugging him normally, NOT because he's overweight. He's actually a quiet guy in person.
Secondly, the policy that Southwest put in place was if you can buckle your seat belt and lower the armrests you can stay. Smith did both these things, AND the folks next to him said it was fine.
Southwest still decided that wasn't good enough and kicked him off.
If they're going to have a policy, they should apply it evenly or not apply it at all. THAT'S the crux of his argument, and whether you like him or not, he's right.
Again, they did not apply their policy fairly. He passed the very test they asked him too and still booted him.
And I agree with atlantajones below, he seems upset it's turned into such a huge thing. But the reason he got upset is he was honestly hurt by their actions.
Look at what he said at one point during his Twitter rant, he looked at the stewardess and said “please don't do this” I'm sure they've done this to tons of folks, just no one had the platform that he has to make it known how asinine this policy is.
In fact, they did it again on the next flight they put him on. A large girl sat next to him, and they pulled her away and tried to make her buy another seat. In Kevin's second podcast, he had this girl on, and even speculated that they staged it to “prove” to him he wasn't being singled out.
lol very smart and funny cartoon
Wait. All facts and figures aside, you seem to be saying that if I have millions of twitter followers, people should not enforce rules and regulations that pertain to me. If I were sitting next to someone on a flight who was spilling into my seat, I sure hope the airlines would adhere to policy regardless of the popularity of the person of spillage. It's called backbone.
Is it me, or does the Pilot resemble the Captain of the TITANIC? LOL
I guess Kevin's never been stuck on a plane between two huge guys that practically suffocated him for three hours. Good on Southwest. They have excellent service and no checked bag fees for the first two bags. They even manage to make the safety spiel humorous enough that people actually pay attention. Smith is a whiner who got an awful lot of free publicity from this. Southwest apparently was the winner if it got them that many more followers.