Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola wanted to make the dream of falling in love on a plane a reality. But their approach did not have the intended effect.
As part of Delta’s brand partnership with Coke, the airline handed out promotional in-flight napkins that encouraged passengers to give their number to others on the plane.
On one side of the napkin it read, “Because you’re on a plane with interesting people and hey…you never know.” The other side had space to write down a name and phone number, with the additional text, “Be a little old school. Write down your number and give it to your plane crush. You never know…”
Delta passengers apparently did not take kindly to the approach, and dozens wrote to the brands on social media, calling the stunt “creepy.”
https://twitter.com/ducksauz/status/1087424701838684162
https://twitter.com/MJJoe/status/1091133757313171456
Both Delta and Coke have since apologized and have reportedly begun pulling the napkins from flights. “We rotate Coke products regularly as part of our brand partnership, but missed the mark with this one. We are sorry for that and began removing the napkins from our aircraft in January,” Delta told USA Today in a statement.
Coca-Cola added: “We sincerely apologize to anyone we may have offended. We worked with our partners at Delta to begin removing the napkins last month and are replacing them with other designs.”