FractionalFocus - Blog

Everybody’s “going green” these days, especially corporations of all sorts. And, boy, do they like to talk about it in their advertising. From GE’s “eco-imagination” campaign to Wal-Mart’s effort to sell ever-more numbers of compact fluorescent lights, there’s no escaping it. Even fractional jet provider Avantair has jumped on the green bandwagon, and proudly touts so in an ad.

We pay close attention to industry advertising here at Fractional Jets Focus because we are also running an advertising agency called Barefoot. 15 years in this business has helped me appreciate what makes an ad great and what grounds one faster than a snow storm at O’Hare. Avantair’s ad resides somewhere in between those two extremes.

The ad features a green (of course!) background, in which you can see the faint hint of a branch with leaves. In the upper right corner of the ad is a photo of one of Avantair’s Avanti P.180’s, which is ostensibly flying in the sky, not slicing through the treetops.

As the body copy explains–and as previously noted in a post about Avantair–they have teamed up with TerraPass, a company that provides “carbon offsets.” This means that the carbon (read: jet fuel) that you use while flying on your fractional jet is offset by renewable energy and other green technologies that TerraPass invests in. That way, you can claim your flying is “carbon neutral,” which is state of eco-nirvana, as Al Gore would define it, anyhow.

The reason so many companies are touting their green products and policies is because for many people the issue is back on the front burner. There hasn’t been this much attention on the environment since the Exxon Valdez disaster. All of the attention on global warming, as well as our country’s dependence on foreign oil, has made “carbon footprint” nearly a household word. This eco-concern is not likely to change anytime soon.

Let’s face it: private flight is an easy target for those looking to dole out eco-complaints. Every time a politician or celebrity speaks up for the environment and then hops into a private plane, they are quickly labeled hypocrites. By teaming up with TerraPass, Avantair gives both celebrities–and regular folks like you and me–a way to respond to those who wag their green fingers at us.

As such, we commend Avantair for seizing upon the interest in green living–and flying. The reference to their planes as “hybrids of the sky” is a nice way to take something familiar (hybrid cars) and apply it something similar, in this case, carbon neutral flight. (It’s also a nod to the hybrid nature of their turbo-prop fleet, too, of course. ) That said, the ad’s headline, “Hybrid of the Skies–Even Greener,” reads awkwardly. The body copy is, thankfully, more cogent.

We rate this Avantair ad as average, or perhaps a skosh bit better. It smartly takes advantage of a red-hot (or should we say “green-hot”?) area of concern and interest, but its pitch could be more interesting and memorable, a deeper breath of fresh air, if you will.