Blog to Blog Post #2, Is “Butcher Advertising” the future of marketing?

Elton John, the "Rocket Man", lends face to AirTran. “The image of the British pop Singer will begin appearing on more than 20 AirTran Airway jets to promote the launch of satellite radio” at each passenger seat. Elton John’s head on 717 is comparable in dimensions to the head of Statue of Liberty.”

You can hardly imagine that Sir Elton John, who is famous for his extravagance, would let a dirt-cheap airline to use his image. Actually, it is a partnership between XM Radio and AirTran. The unique feature or the irony of this collaboration is that XM, which Elton John endorsed all conventional advertising rights to, only allows AirTran to use Elton John’s image for the promotion, not his name, his music, his body, his voice or anything else.

XM was wise enough to let AirTran use the image only, and save Sir Elton’s new song “Answer in the Sky” to promote its own new digital portable receiver Delphi MyFi. Of course, with Americans’ obsession with fame and celebrity, AirTran got huge publicity and feedback from customers.

Is this the new marketing technique? Is this a new chapter to advertising using celebrities? You can butcher the celebrities into pieces and use them for different promotions, their name, their voice, image or any of the body parts sparately? Is this the new way to satisfy the needs for fame and celebrity and also to manage the advertising budget? Maybe some day we will see JoLo’s butt only on Calvin Klein’s underware?

My classmate, Maggy Jordan, she blogged about "Howard Stern and the Satellite Wars". The competitor of XM Radio, Sirius Radio signed, $500 million, the biggest broadcasting contract with Howard Stern. Even though Sirius’ plan for Howard Stern to justify to $500 million contract remains unrevealed, they might get some got some hints or lessons from XM by how they used the celebrity of Sir Elton John. Stay tuned and we will find out.