'Great Lakes Airlines' Has Interesting Advertising

Last month I had the opportunity to fly Great Lakes Airlines from Cape to St. Louis.

I use the word "opportunity" out of respect to the hardworking men and women who are employed by the airline. Honestly, if someone else hadn't paid for this flight, I wouldn't have taken it.

I hate flying on small planes and the plane that Great Lakes uses for our market is one.

But I sucked it up and enjoyed the brief, pleasant flight. I was even surprised that Great Lakes had their own magazine -- "Peaks & Plains" it is called -- promoting the dozens of smaller cities it serves primarily in the west and mid-west part of the country.

Ironically, while the company is called Great Lakes Airlines, it only serves 4 cities that are even remotely close to the Great Lakes. I noticed this while looking at the ad they had for themselves in the magazine.

They also fly to one of my company's sister operations in McCook, Nebraska. McCook is in the south central part of the state, close to the Kansas border. Theoretically, I could fly there using just Great Lakes Airlines.

The route would be Cape to St. Louis to Burlington, Iowa to Kansas City to Salina, Kansas and finally to McCook. That's good information to know if I have a week to spare sometime.

I saw that Cape Girardeau had a quarter-page ad in "Peaks & Plains" promoting the Storytelling Festival that started today. I personally would not call this effective advertising.

I would be amazed if someone flying Great Lakes in Cheyenne, Wyoming -- that's where the airline's headquarters are located -- happened across this ad while thumbing through the magazine and decided right then and there that they were going to go to Cape Girardeau, Missouri to attend a storytelling festival. That's not going to happen. If someone said they were, I would think they were telling me a tall-tale.

While I found our town's little ad in the magazine amusing, at least we were advertising an event. A hospital in Rock Springs, Wyoming bought a full-page color ad promoting their brand-new emergency room.

Now that is a waste of advertising dollars. When do you ever have the opportunity to shop for an emergency room?

"Whoops! I just cut myself with a circular saw and am spurting blood. Shall I go to Southeast or Saint Francis or what about that brand-new emergency room at Memorial Hospital in Sweetwater County, Wyoming that I read about in "Peaks & Plains?

And while I am no advertising copywriter, I think whoever created this promotion was really reaching for positive spin to use in this ad.

For instance, the ER construction at the hospital used "2000 square yards of asphalt" which is "almost half of an NFL football field." That's an interesting fact, but did I -- or anyone for that matter -- really need to know that bit of trivia? I know I didn't. And I sure hope they used that asphalt for the parking lot and not actually in the emergency room. Using asphalt indoors doesn't sound very practical or sanitary.

This new addition also used "2,500 cubic yards of concrete" equivalent to "985 elephants." I wonder why they picked that unit of measure since I'm pretty sure that elephants are not native to Wyoming. Wouldn't it have made more sense to use bears or moose or antelopes for this weight comparison? They are all native to that state.

I think saying the ER construction at this hospital used concrete equivalent in weight to 13,750 small female moose sounds rather impressive.

I also noticed while perusing "Peaks & Plains" that if I ever want to personally inspect this emergency room in Sweetwater County, Wyoming I can fly Great Lakes Airlines the entire way.

And if I have the opportunity someday, I will.

It's just two hops past Salina, Kansas.

An ad from "Peaks & Plains" magazine.