Taking flight

GLOBAL: It’s hard to imagine a better advertisement for your product than George Clooney. And how about getting Clooney’s star power free of charge? American Airlines and Hilton Hotels now have both, thanks to the new film Up in the Air , which was released in the US in late December and will be showing in Germany from 4 February.

Clooney plays a “corporate downsizer” — a businessman whose main function is to fire other people. When he’s not sacking unfortunate employees, he’s spending his time on planes, in airports and at hotels. Which is where American Airlines and Hilton come in. “Does this sound suspiciously like a big-screen American Airlines commercial?” asks the Los Angeles Times.

Many companies would pay millions of dollars for the publicity. But American Airlines allowed the film-makers to use their facilities without charge. “We did not spend any money,” Dawn Turner, the company’s manager of promotions, told the International Herald Tribune. “We don’t have any money to spend — you read the headlines, right?”

"If movies show a plane blowing up, that's not good," says Dawn Turner of American Airlines.

Now the airline is showing trailers for the film on its flights and featuring it in its inflight magazine, as well as offering film-related prizes on its website. American Airlines likes the film because it takes a positive view of air travel. “If a production isn’t putting together a project that fits well with our brand image, we don’t participate,” says Turner. “Movies nowadays can be really violent, and if they have a plane blowing up, that’s not good.”

Meanwhile, several Hilton hotels are shown in the film, including those in Miami and St. Louis. The hotel chain did not charge Paramount Pictures the usual location fees, and is promoting the movie on its website. “A film like this has a truly global reach and allows global marketing,” says Andrew Flack, vice president for global brand marketing at Hilton Hotels.

The film was shown to employees at the company’s headquarters in McLean, Virginia. They were understandably thrilled when Clooney was seen wearing a bathrobe with the Hilton label. “There was a sort of a hush and a buzz, shall we say — and a few whistles,” Flack commented.