Back in 2011, on a flight from San Francisco to Honolulu, a hula halau group surprised passengers on a Hawaiian Airlines flight with a spontaneous “Flash Mob” performance. It was pretty cool back then. Check it out, then fast forward below to 2022 and how competition drives new ways of marketing flights to Hawaii. We’ve gone from a non-commercial hula performance to merchandising with a captive audience at 38,000 feet.
Oxford dictionary says, “shtick/SHtik/ – a gimmick, comic routine, performance style, etc.
Jason Momoa’s flight attendant shtick failed to convince.
Jason Momoa was recently in the air promoting his Mananalu Pure Water, headquartered in Boone, North Carolina. His Hawaii-themed water is being served in aluminum instead of plastic containers by Hawaiian Airlines and is sourced from Bozeman, Montana, Montebello, California, and Norfolk, Nebraska.
The water is available in 12-packs for $27.99 on Amazon.
In his latest promotion, Jason served the water as a make-believe flight attendant on Hawaiian Airlines to support their serving of it on flights to and from the mainland. As we said previously, aluminum water cans are theoretically but infrequently recycled and are not a great environmental option. Remember that the saying goes, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” It’s in that order for a good reason, as recycling is considered the least effective.
Reusable containers are far more sustainable than recyclable ones. And that’s even before the controversy about aluminum safety and the undeniable fact that producing these aluminum cans uses huge amounts of electricity. It’s also associated with greenhouse gas emissions. Reuters reported, “A 330 ml [aluminum] can is responsible for 1,300 grams of carbon dioxide emissions… A plastic bottle of the same size… accounts for up to 330 grams.”
Shtick #3 on a Southwest Hawaii flight this week.
Oneupmanship took to another level this week when all passengers onboard Southwest Airlines from Long Beach to Honolulu received a free ukulele and a lesson. This was done in partnership with Guitar Center in what was dubbed the “first-ever in-flight ukulele lesson.” Each passenger left the plane with a $60 ukulele.
I was really touched by the sense of community shown on the SWA Ukulele flight! Pasengers were talking to eachother and helping eachother learn to play the ukulele. Adverstisment or not, this was a great way to bring people together with a common goal: making music!