Once again Southwest Airlines attempted to make someone change his T-shirt (or wear it inside out) because it was deemed offensive. Southwest Airlines makes man change T-shirt
CONSIDER THE SIMILAR INCIDENTS:
Southwest boots woman for T-shirt: October 2005
This was the “meet the fockers” slogan with Bush, Cheney and Rice.
Southwest fashion police set no-fly zone: Sep 2007
Just last month, the Hooters girl was asked to change her mini-skirt, or else.
On the Nuts About Southwest blog the post about that mini skirt flap got 235 comments. One commenter had this to say:
“Are your guys (no sic) in advertising there clueless? … If you really want to make a statement, create a dress code for the airline, publish it and then enforce it.”
About time, huh?
If you’d like to help craft that dress code, step this way.
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October 12, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Marc Wright
Having just come from a two day Ragan conference at the Southwest Airlines training centre in Dallas I think I can help illuminate where the airline is coming from.
Founder Herb Kelleher famously said the “the customer is not always right”. A strange comment from the founder of an airline with the best customer service records in the industry.
But the fact is that Southwest Airlines put their employees first. And that means that an abusive or offensive customer comes second.
Put another way, Southwest Airlines does not need a dress code because they trust their staff to make decisions,which is what happened when Joe Winiecki, of Largo, Florida, boarded a Southwest flight in Columbus, Ohio, wearing a fictional fishing shop T-shirt which featured the words, “Master Baiter.”
You can argue with the flight attendant’s opinion, but I don’t believe that Southwest has anything to apologise for.
What was happening on the plane was a conversation between two adults; not the top-down imposition of corporate will.
November 3, 2007 at 2:09 pm
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