Where is The Big Guy When We Need Him?

Recently, Virgin Atlantic airlines’ owner Richard Branson publicized the addition of a new route to the carrier’s schedule by wearing a kilt.  Appropriate enough, given that the new route will take passengers to and from Edinburgh Airport in Scotland.  But as part of the publicity he lifted the kilt to reveal briefs lettered with the words "Stiff Competition."

We were reminded immediately of a long-ago episode of the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, wherein the down-in-the-ratings radio station’s staff created an upbeat and catchy jingle for an advertiser... a funeral home.

The commercial was likely to be the one that pulled the station from its financial doldrums.  The advertiser – a riotously dour caricature of a funeral director – was making a substantial purchase of airtime, and the station’s staff was excited by the prospects of raises and better times ahead.

But Arthur Carlson, the radio station manager portrayed brilliantly by actor Gordon Jump, declined to run the ads and turned down the lucrative account.  Clearly pained by the economic impact of his decision, Mr Carlson nonetheless stuck to his values and told his program director, “Where I come from, that commercial is in bad taste.”

At the time that this episode first aired in 1979, the notion of there being any remaining sense of taste in advertising was already somewhat quaint, and Mr Carlson’s decision was plainly old-fashioned.  But there was a message in his having put principles ahead of profit.

Branson, already a billionaire, needs an Arthur Carlson to tell him that his promotion is in bad taste.

(Want to hear the Ferryman Funeral Home jingle from WKRP?  A somewhat obsessive fan of the show has posted it here.)