Like many marketing and communications consultants, I travel a lot to meet with clients and attend trade shows, and that always means tangling and dealing with the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) on airport security issues.
Now, if TSA employees actually did their jobs, and acted as if our security and safety were the utmost priorities, then I wouldn't have any beefs with the agency. But no. Every time I fly out of LAX or Burbank, it looks like TSA recently had a giant casting call for the next John Singleton film about life in the hood, with tons of employees standing around doing nothing, chatting on their cell phones with their homies, and basically ignoring most security protocols instituted by the Department of Homeland Security. It's quite astonishing, really, over how some of these people get hired and remain on the job, and the lack of oversight by TSA managers at security checkpoints is appalling. Hey, Feds: I want a job that pays me $25+ an hour, plus government benefits, to do nada; where do I sign up??? Obviously, I exaggerate here...but not much.
And that brings me to today's miff. As detailed in this piece by The Consumerist, TSA recently launched a recruiting-focused advertising campaign in Washington, D.C. to identify and hire new security officers at Washington-Dulles International and Reagan National Airports. Employment-related marketing campaigns are everywhere, but did the TSA employ traditional media channels such as print, online, and outdoor advertising, and radio and TV spots?
Absolutely not. Instead of relying on mass media to get the message out, the rocket scientists at TSA decide to put ads on pizza boxes instead, as evidenced by the following:
Now, if TSA employees actually did their jobs, and acted as if our security and safety were the utmost priorities, then I wouldn't have any beefs with the agency. But no. Every time I fly out of LAX or Burbank, it looks like TSA recently had a giant casting call for the next John Singleton film about life in the hood, with tons of employees standing around doing nothing, chatting on their cell phones with their homies, and basically ignoring most security protocols instituted by the Department of Homeland Security. It's quite astonishing, really, over how some of these people get hired and remain on the job, and the lack of oversight by TSA managers at security checkpoints is appalling. Hey, Feds: I want a job that pays me $25+ an hour, plus government benefits, to do nada; where do I sign up??? Obviously, I exaggerate here...but not much.
And that brings me to today's miff. As detailed in this piece by The Consumerist, TSA recently launched a recruiting-focused advertising campaign in Washington, D.C. to identify and hire new security officers at Washington-Dulles International and Reagan National Airports. Employment-related marketing campaigns are everywhere, but did the TSA employ traditional media channels such as print, online, and outdoor advertising, and radio and TV spots?
Absolutely not. Instead of relying on mass media to get the message out, the rocket scientists at TSA decide to put ads on pizza boxes instead, as evidenced by the following:
Unbelievable. Now ask yourself: is this the kind of marketing that will recruit top-notch talent? Of course not. It's yet another hare-brained decision by the federal government exclusively designed to waste YOUR tax dollars. As the title of this piece indicates, this has to go down as the worst federal government advertising campaign ever.
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