United Airlines Launched a Superhero-Heavy Promotional Campaign

Everyone is going nuts over the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now, especially now that “Avengers: End Game” has concluded the series’ decade-long story arc. But with video games, films about individual characters and more, people are still very much interested in all things Marvel.

United Airlines is getting in on the superhero fun by paying one member of the “Avengers” cast to sit on a plane in disguise until one hour into the flight, at which point they pop out in full character costume and re-enact a scene with an unsuspecting passenger.

Just kidding. That would be sweet though, right?

United is actually providing a pretty cool amenity kit for its Polaris business-class passengers this summer, which includes branded Spider-Man socks, an eye mask, ear plugs, a toothbrush, toothpaste, tissues, a pen and skin-care products from Sunday Riley, according to Apex.

https://twitter.com/LarryCoben/status/1140476258595291137

Flew with United Airlines to New York. Kind of liked it, that everything was Spiderman themed. @SpiderManMovie @TomHolland1996 @Zendaya 😊🤷🏼‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/1WjApov0uU

— Kim (@KimHasenbos_) June 18, 2019

(Apparently not everyone got one, though.)

WTF is up my our amenity kids on our @united flight yesterday (SFO to AMS)? There should have been Spiderman kits, but we got old leftover kits (with Cowshed products) instead. So much for the tie in. 🙁

— Denny Cherry - mrdenny@techhub.social (@mrdenny) June 15, 2019

There’s even a neat little in-flight safety video, which might persuade some passengers to take off their headphones and actually pay attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=108&v=eM0H9rbqusw

(If you just watched it while you’re not even on a plane, that proves our point.)

This begs the question: Why did this take so long to use superheroes to preach in-flight safety? If we don’t listen to the biggest fictional heroes who ever lived, who will we listen to? If Spider-Man tells you to keep your tray table up during takeoff, or if Thor reminds you to put your phone in airplane mode, you’re probably going to do it.

“For decades, Spider-Man has consistently shown the importance of using power to do good and to keep the public safe,” Mark Krolick, United’s vice president of marketing, said in a release. “We also believe that our greatest responsibility is to keep our customers and crew safe on board our aircraft. We are excited to have Spider-Man and his friends, along with our employees, bring new attention to the in-flight safety video and creatively engage customers on such an important announcement.”

It kind of feels like how, in the movies, the superheroes are used for commerce or advertising sometimes. Like, a mattress salesman claims that they’re the only Batman-approved mattress outlet in the tri-state area, or an after-school special airs some message from Black Widow about the importance of home fire prevention.

Oh, the best part is that, after you pay attention to the in-flight movie and check out the little amenity packs, United passengers can watch a host of Marvel movies to get them stoked on the goodies they received on the flight.