Cessna Fights Back Against Motown Mauling With WSJ Ad

by Robert Farago

February 12th, 2009 8:20 PM

cessna fights back against motown mauling with wsj ad

Well good for them. As we said at the time, when used responsibly, a private jet is an invaluable management tool. An executive lording it over a far-flung empire can use private transpo to gather otherwise unobtainable on-the-ground intelligence. (Body language is 65.7 percent of all human communication.) Not to mention instilling the fear of God by all-of-a-sudden showing-up amongst his or her minions. Of course, as far as we know, and they ain’t sayin’ nothin’ (surprise!), that justifiable jet set savvy doesn’t apply to Chrysler, Ford or GM.

Before Congress had a hypocritical hissy fit over the automakers’ airplane fleet, ChryCo CEO Bob Nardelli and Ford CEO Alan Mulally were both using their Gulfstreams as a taxi service home—for both themselves and their families. Not to mention FoMoCo’s El Presidente De Las Americas’ weekend flights to Miami. Oh, and you could write a book about what GM’s management doesn’t know about what’s going on at the sharp end (with or without jet transportation).

Anyway . . .

Nobody’s buying the automakers’ planes; they’re busy depreciating like a stone thrown into a deep dark well. Advertising Age reports on Cessna’s campaign to fight the bailout blowback.

The campaign, created by Grace/Dickerson, Denver, will run in national business newspapers and magazines as well as aviation trades, and will include a public-relations campaign. The PR push will follow the ads, emphasizing economically positive points such as the fact that general aviation (all civil aviation except airlines) is a $150 billion business that employs 1.2 million people. Mr. Stangarone said another point the company will make is that it’s one of the few industries with a positive balance of trade, exporting 40% of its products annually.

Hang on, this sounds a bit like a plea for a federal assistance. I’m Bailout Nation. Fly me! Meanwhike, we’ve got some BIG news brewing on the “jet gate” front. Stay tuned Tango Tango Alpha Charlie fans . . . .

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2 of 13 comments

Buzzliteyear on Feb 12, 2009

Once again, did anyone complain (or even ask) if the Wall Street Masters of the Universe took corporate jets to their Congressional hearings? Class warfare, much?

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Speedlaw on Feb 13, 2009

A contrarian view: I've never set foot in a private Jet, and my one Concorde experience was at the Intrepid Docked in NYC. For some folks, the corporate jet does make business sense. Many Bizjets can access hundreds of airports that are too small for the normal heavy jet liners. Suddenly you can get more places way faster and with less ground travel hassle. Did you know that Bizjets also fly faster than your regularly scheduled cattle pens ? While the excess is that the jet is then dispatched at company expense to ski in Aspen, if you have a large enough group, it makes sense to get them there fast, easy and together. An acquaintance who works in the ad biz had to pitch a major supplier of sugared water. The whole team got on a jet in NYC, flew to the home base of this soda seller, pitched, and returned, all in one easy day. Compared to the airfares for the ten folks and getting to, from, and through the airports, the Bizjet made sense. I can't get this worked up about it. Letting 50k/week CEO sit in an airport lounge while the planes backup, the Air Crew "times out" and quietly leaves, and the airline takes four hours to find another crew, is a waste of money.

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