Last night, Turkish Airlines returned to the Super Bowl with an ad for the third consecutive year. But this was a bit different, to put it charitably.
Rather than a showcase of the onboard product or reminder that Turkish Airlines serves more countries than any other airline, the 30-second ad was more like a trailer for a film. In fact, that is exactly what it was.
Here’s the Super Bowl ad, which ran during the 1st quarter:
Most viewers were left collectively scratching their heads. What is this about? Sure, it shows the Turkish Airlines business class cabin, new airport in Istanbul, and new flight attendant uniforms. It also shows how beautiful Istanbul is. But what is going on in the ad? Why is Turkish Airlines making a Ridley Scott film?
Moments after the ad premiered, Turkish Airlines added the entire six minute “film” across its social media outlets:
Will This Sell Airline Tickets?
There is no question I enjoyed both the 30-second ad and full six-minute movie. I truly love Istanbul and love how the movie showcases the timeless charm of East-meets-West in the former Constantinople. At the same time, I’m not sure this movie will sell airline tickets.
The 2017 and 2018 ads focused on Turkish Airlines as a global gateway. Now that violence has waned in the Turkish capital, Ankara, and in Istanbul, the focus on visiting Turkey may appeal to more. And of course the “chase” also implies Turkish Airlines has a great route network. But it does seem like an expensive gamble.
CONCLUSION
I would have thought Turkish Airlines would have again used its Super Bowl spot to explicitly highlight its superb route network and introduce its new business class seats. Instead, it left us with a very odd movie trailer to a move that only tangentially highlights Turkish Airlines.
What do you think of the 2019 Turkish Airlines’ Super Bowl ad?
> Watch: Turkish Airlines Super Bowl Commercial with Dr. Oz
> Watch: Turkish Airlines Super Bowl Ad with Morgan Freeman
No airline is better than Turkish than lighting money on fire with their advertising budget.
For an “avid traveller” you should know better that Istanbul is not the capital of Turkey. Sinece
travelling regularly it is actually good to know more about the places you visit.
I know that Ankara is the capital…I was referring to waning violence in Ankara and Istanbul. For the avoidance of doubt, I have re-worded that sentence.
Istanbul is not the capital of Turkey. Ankara is.
One should remember that Turkish Airlines is essentially government owned and operated. Given this, it is a brilliant presentation of not only the airline, but Istanbul in specific and Turkey in general.
I don’t know about brilliant, but it seems pretty clearly to be marketing Turkey, and I am sure that is government-supported. Sales of Turkish Airways tickets is incidental.
Absolute rubbish, no doubt devised by some clueless millennial marketing maven ( perhaps the same ones that advised Marriott to eliminate desks from rooms).
Total waste of money.
The purpose of an advertising is delivering a message and get consumer attracted to the product. Some will embellish their product, some will introduce the product, and let the product speak for itself. Obviously the ad has left some people scratching head due to the unusual narrative delivered. Some even has written about it on a blog, subsequently, spreading the word. The ad has worked well….
What violence are you talking about???
Well Turkish Airline was very good few years ago but like they said it’s Erdogan’s Airline now,, I’m a Turkish and American and I stop flying with them because Airline is serving only Erdogan’s Party members.! And they don’t have any competition.