World of Hyatt is replacing Gold Passport on March 1st and Hyatt unveiled a new ad campaign today that will air on the Oscars Sunday night. It is a very political ad.
First, watch the video–
I like the video a lot. It speaks to a society I want to raise my son in, a society in which religious, social, and cultural differences are respected and humans treat fellow humans with dignity and respect.
But, in the midst of burgeoning populist and isolationist movements around the world, Hyatt’s political stand is sure to sour many, even many of the affluent who can afford to stay in fancy hotels.
Here is how Hyatt describes the new campaign–
World of Hyatt is our new global platform, driven by our purpose to care for people so they can be their best. It’s about engaging more deeply with our community and understanding that community better. It’s an expression of who we are and what we stand for, as well as an opportunity to extend what we do with our guests, colleagues and partners beyond just hotel stays.
And that seems fairly non-controversial. Hyatt already does this — I witnessed it during a recent stay at the Hyatt Regency in Dar Es Salaam.
But the video sends a different message, a dismissal of concerns and reasonable fear over change that are at the root of many populist movements.
Community Experiences from Hyatt
Hyatt’s intends to put its words into practice by offering experiences to its guests beyond just good hotel stays.
- At launch, we’re partnering with AFAR (a company founded on the idea that travel promotes understanding) on an immersive experience in Tokyo that will be available to select members. More details to come.
- We’re partnering with Learning AFAR/No Barriers USA (non-profits) to put empathy into action – Chicago Public School students who couldn’t otherwise participate will have an opportunity for an immersive educational program that culminates in a trip to Costa Rica.
These sound promising.
CONCLUSION
Milton Friedman may have said the only social responsibility a Hyatt has is to make profit, but sometimes social responsibility, like the initiatives above, fosters loyalty which fosters profits. Certainly it makes me feel better to know that some of the profit from my hotel stays is going toward helping those in need and helping those not in need understand that there is a world of need around them.
Only problem I have with the add is that Hyatt’s target audience isn’t really the one who needs to hear the add. It needs to be directed at those who abuse women, cut off people’s heads, kill people based on their religion, kill homosexuals, etc., etc.
I like it.
I only wish Hyatt had the global footprint to go with this ad.
Good point, Vicente.
Agreed Matthew. 100%
But… I don’t get why it’s political. It’s with a huge sigh and heavy heart that only… ONLY in Trump’s America is it possible to say a company is getting political when it produces an ad showing people of different cultures, color of skin, and religions meeting each other and being nice to each other.
Hyatt is a global company that is tourism based. The very nature of which is people being away from home, and perhaps their comfort zone. It’s promoting only one thing… people are people. Is that political nowadays? Wow, look far we gone in reverse.
Is it political now to suggest that a woman with a head scarf might be pleasant and offer the smallest of kind gestures with a smile, instead of a scowl and scorn for a differing color of skin or religion?
Actually I used to work for a very high up person at Hyatt, and I’ve seen first hand their politics (for billionaires) are refreshing. Help others and spread wealth/ caring. So in a way you did hit the nail on the head, it is a message to the disgraceful sickening despicable this country is headed. A subtle message that should be so intrinsic to normal life that it would go without saying.
What I’m most sick to my stomach is that half of this country has to be told that Muslims are not terrorists. But sadly when they blindly follow a bigot who tells them Islam hates America, they will never be told anything of the sort.
I am not gay, I am not Muslim, I am not black, I am not Mexican, I am not poor, I am not in the firing line of Trump. Yet I find his message of division, demonizing of billions of wonderful people due to falling outside of his mater race/religion so f***ing scary, I fear for the future.
Bring it on right wing brainless army, I’ll save you the trouble… I’m a not a libtard, or any other pathetic insult… I have just have a tiny bit of soul, integrity and compassion that you sorely lack.
Pretty sad the point we got to in these times of empowered/entitled trump deplorables…
An ad that shows basic civility is labeled as too political.
Also, very disappointing (although not surprising) that the author, in true republican “we all do it”, chose to whitewash reality in the sentence: “in the midst of burgeoning populist and isolationist movements around the world”
@CJ: Whitewash? The world is not just Trump. Brexit in the UK, AFD rising in Germany, National Front in France, Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, Erdogan in Turkey, Putin in Russia, Duterte in the Philippines. My comment was correct and does not convey political feelings in one direction or the other. I never said the ad was “too” political. I liked it.
“empowered/entitled trump deplorables…”
It is just that attitude of tolerance that is going to give us 8 years of Trump instead of 4. Keep it up.!!!
Also, let us know next time you plan on vacationing in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen. We’d like a trip report so we can all hear how it went.
@Hydro +1000. I don’t need to be lectured by companies about how to think correctly. There are rational concerns driving what are described as populist movements, such as: the real threat of religious extremism, lawlessness/illegal immigration, increasing centralized power in governments due to both an increase in socialism and unaccountable global/regional governance of EU/UN, etc.
The left wants to conflate real and rational concerns about things like illegal immigration and terrorism with xenophobia and intolerance. Meanwhile, in the real world, the people that the leftist want to bestow victim status to, Muslims, are overall (not all, mind you) the most intolerant demographic when it comes to women, homosexuals, and other religions. In how many Muslim majority countries are religious minorities not second class citizens that live in constant fear? If you want to preach tolerance on someone, start with them. I can’t help but think that if 99% of terrorism today was being done by Baptists or Mormons, the left would not be in such a rush to defend them.
WR You are an idiot. We are not talking about Islamic nations you fool. Have you ever been to one? Been outta your redneck zone? I doubt it.
This is about splitting up families, banning decent people based on religion, intolerance here not anywhere else. We are not talking about Saudi Arabi or Central Africa. We are taking about the US.
I know among your heros are that Conway bigot who smokescreen and change the subject, deflect and pivot. Ain’t gonna wash with me. You racist low life. I hope you get your white supremacist dream cos it’s gonna be a massive failure and I’ll be long gone while you cling to redneck economic wasteland that it will become. Mark my words.
@WR
From your text above, you sure could benefit from some lecturing on coexistence (I find you choice of words “think correctly” rather poor).
You also show very clearly you true republican “but they do it too” mentality to excuse certain actions, which are becoming more frequent in these days of empowered/entitled trump deplorables.
Lastly, what you call “the left” (which I refer to as civilized, reasonable people), also defend baptists, evangelicals, and mormons, wherever they are being wronged, in spite of many prominent members of these groups’ condoning of domestic terrorists, child molesters, racists, and polygamists.
@CJ Yeah right, leftists care so much about evangelical Christians that they will happily shut down their business and take away their life savings unless they unwillingly agree to work a gay wedding (as happened in Oregon). I am not Christian, but I find leftists much more intolerant than Christians. Sire. leftists are very tolerant, as long as you agree to do as they tell you to do. So the words “Think correctly” were chosen quite deliberately.
I don’t know what behavior you think I am condoning, but it is all in your mind. I am simply for enforcing our laws (i.e. illegal immigration is illegal), and for a sensible immigration policy that recognizes that many refugees from the ME are radicalized. They should absolutely not be prioritized over people who wish to come from peaceful places like Thailand, which is absolutely the case. It’s a better solution to build and defend a safe haven in the ME than to export their problems here.
@Andy Typical leftist ad hominem. You can’t stick to an argument without insults and emotional pleas, yet somehow you maintain your unearned sense of moral righteousness. By the way, I was born in a foreign country, was an exchange student and intern in another foreign country, have graduate degree from a top 10 university, and obviously travel extensively. I know you like to imagine that only drooling bucktooth hillbillies would dare stoop so low as to disagree with your vision of world socialism, so sorry to disappoint you.
There is a difference between being intolerant and not being willfully ignorant to reality. In an ideal world we should of course view people as individuals, but it is human nature to react to real threats. Pretending that it ain’t so won’t change reality. The only real solution to lower discrimination against Muslims is for Muslims to collectively decide to stop declaring jihad on everyone else. This is the problem with the ad. Like Hydro said, the preaching is directed at the wrong audience.
@WR:
Well said. Since the Trump election I have never heard so much vitrol as I have from those who claim the moral high ground.
I assume those who read these blogs are people who travel extensively. But I am not sure how much the readers travel outside their safety zones to witness a world of intolerance outside the USA. What is happening in the USA pales in comparison to many areas of the world.
I am returning now from Arunachal Pradesh located in the northeast corner of India. Security is very high in this province due to the terrorists in the area. I have been working in an orphange where I have seen the results of girls being set on fire. I wish I never had to learn what a kerosene bride was. The intolerance and lack of compassion I have witnessed there is matched only by the degree of comapasion and bravery I have witnessed for those foreigners who work there full time to help (I am not included among those so please do not accuse me of tooting my own horn).
Sure, the Trump haters can cast all of us who voted for him as intolerant haters of all women and those of different colored skin, but I travel extensively to combat exactly that. When Trump enforces the laws and seeks a proper vetting procedure to keep the USA safe, it is sad and inaccurate he and all those who voted for him is potrayed as an intolerant bigot. Yet those who make the claim such as WR, are among the most judgmental and acrimonious people I can think of.
I also agree with others who do not see the ad as political. Hate is not a political issue and neither side, left nor right, is void of this.
Andy, Got a lot of hate in that body of yours, you should get help or shut up.
@ CJ,
Sorry, I meant to show my support for your comments in above post, not WRs.
This is a universal message, regardless of the political context. Kudos to Hyatt for taking the brave step to convey this message at this particular time.
Democrats can’t stand the fact that they lost the can’t-lose election so they look desperately for explanations and drink whatever the “turnaround” leaders of the party feed them (as did the rightist after 2008). Trump is targeting radical Islam and not Islam and it makes sense, his immigration ban was to be temporary (only another 15,000 could get in this year anyway), and I could go on about the hyperbole in your descriptions of him. He obviously likes being rough around the edges as it’s gotten him where he is but he won the election for a reason (and don’t complain about the Electoral College – he campaigned to win under the current rules) and he’s keeping his campaign promises. Funny how leftists try to portray the rightists as the group with no compassion and no intelligence but the loudest leftists’ lack of both stand out in their arguments.
@Andy,
Do you honestly expect going on a tirade and calling people names will win support for your position, and make you appear like an intelligent, rational person?
I guess I’m obtuse – but I fail to see the politics in the ad itself. Unless we’re now saying that the mere act of interacting with someone of a different race/ethnicity/religion on vacation is political. Travel by definition is about “understanding”, though we all define the word differently in the context of a vacation or business trip.
Now, is the emphasis on social responsibility in the new branding a political statement? Maybe, though I think it’s more an intentional, concerted focus on attracting Millennials. In hindsight, that also makes the minimalist World of Hyatt logo and hipster elite tier names make sense. That’s fine, but as a non-Millennial that’s not a Hyatt loyalist, none of this really does anything for me, or convinces me why I should choose Hyatt over someone else. After all, some of those “experiences” for top tier elites might be interesting – but what good does that do when the brand’s footprint is too small to give me any practical chance of actually being able to enjoy them?
It is a known fact that Hyatt is a big supporter of the Dem party. So the add is tailored to have one think a certain way. I’m thinking that Hyatt is worried about short-staffing of maids at some of their hotels in U.S.
I’m also very concerned that Hyatt has not opened up ONE hotel in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen. Maybe they need to put their money where their mouth is.
I know how to think. I know the difference between right and wrong, and how to treat individuals (notice – I said “individuals”). I’m inclusive. I’m nice to everybody. I treat everyone the same way that I want to be treated. But that isn’t the real issue. Is there a safety concern here for U.S. citizens – yes there is. So I’m kind of not listening to their add. It’s more of – a diversion.