Follow up on the Desjardins Insurance ad

Monday we presented the Ad Campaign of Desjardins Insurance which features airships. As reader Sterling from the "the future soon" Blog pointed out the Ad Campaign is not really pro airships. Unfortunately since I live in europe I haven't seen the TV ad yet, but Sterling let's us know:

that they show airship travel as slow, uncomfortable and prone to leaking in rainstorms.

If someone could take a video of the ad and put it on YouTube that would be great. It is interesting that airships have this image. Airship travel is of course inherently slow and but it was once the fastest way to travel and thank god we can now hop on a plane to get somewhere fast. But even though ships are slower people still take a vacation on a cruise ship, so why wouldn't they take a vacation on a cruise airship? Airship travel has never been uncomfortable. And airships were never prone to leaking in rainstorms that's just fiction of the marketing agency. In fact airship travel was the most luxurious way to travel through air ever seen. Never again had people that much space and comfort on an aircraft. I often think I would rather take a day longer but have a comfortable ride than being crammed into a modern airliners economy class.

But if the public has this image of airships we need to do something. The Zeppelin NT shows what the first step is, and we have to continue developing great airships that are simply better than planes, less noise, more comfort, bigger windows and more space. Those are the qualities of an airship over a plane that we can use to show were our industry has an advantage. Airships wont solve all problems but they can be a great alternative.

Here are two press releases talking about the campaign:

• Desjardins General Insurance Introduces Benefits of True Direct Model to Ontario Home and Auto Insurance Customers
• Desjardins pushes into Ontario