Air sickness bags that make the point

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Air sickness bags that make the point
By Diego Vasquez
Apr 27, 2007, 14:33

People are used to seeing barf bags onboard airplanes, and they have a special meaning for travelers. One look and you know you're on a plane.

Except last week.

To make a point about its business class service, Virgin Atlantic Airways posted 3-foot-tall air sickness bags on the streets in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, the airline’s biggest hub cities.

To say the least, it's an arresting visual, an eye-catcher.

The point: At a time when other airlines are cutting back on their service, Virgin Atlantic is staying true. Quips a Virgin spokesperson: "What better expression of the current state of air travel than an air sickness bag?"

The bags, which are nearly four times the size of a typical 10-inch tall bag, were hung up on temporary walls around construction sites and construction scaffolding.

Each bright-red bag had a long essay printed on the front about other airlines’ penny-pinching.

The campaign was created by Miami-based agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and it runs through mid-July.

The passage on the bags ends with: "If any of you out there are about to travel on Virgin Atlantic, cheers. Time to rinse that bad taste of flying out of your mouth. If not, we say try to enjoy your next flight. And oh, you might want to take this with you."

“We thought a barf bag was a pretty good metaphor for what’s going on in air travel these days,” says Bill Wright, vice president and creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. “Especially if you’ve been on a flight with cramped seats, no pillow or blanket and no food.”