Private Jets Fight Back

Ah, the private jet. What with the recent Detroit bail-out debacle closely followed by the private-jets-to-the-superbowl story, it's received its fair share of negative headlines recently. Epitomizing as it does the twin evils-du-jour - excessive spending and excessive carbon emissions - the private jet is threatening to become the symbol for all that is wrong with business 1.0. No wonder then that Cessna is fighting back with an ad, breaking today, which seeks to position the private jet as a tool of executive efficiency and smart leadership.

Our instinct on this one? Probably not going to work. As a real price for carbon looms on the horizon, the private jet will become substantially less financially viable than it is right now - and business leaders will need to consider alternative ways to meet their needs.

So what to do if your client is heavily invested in a carbon-intensive legacy technololgy whose time, it seems, has come? This is where it's helpful to separate brand from product. What does the Cessna brand stand for that can carry it into the future? What are the tools of smarter business of tomorrow?

At Ogilvy's new building on 11th avenue, we'll have access to (our client) Cisco's Telepresence technology. It's pretty cool, as close to being in the same room as you can get without actually being there. Their website is encouraging people to 'save more, travel less'. Now that's what we call sustainability-inpsired innovation.