In-Flight Advertising On Singapore Airlines

~ Frederic Sautet ~

I’m in Singapore. Not necessarily the most exciting city in Asia, but surely one of the most fascinating cases of economic success the world has ever seen. I like the place and its airline. I strongly recommend flying Singapore Airlines to those who have never experienced what “service” truly means on a commercial airliner. Where most other airlines simply transport you, Singapore Airlines makes you forget you have a twelve-hour flight ahead of you. Details matter in business: they have L’Occitane creams available in their toilets for instance, and their hot towels are really hot. Singapore Airlines’ flight attendants are famously young and handsome, something other airlines can only dream of, as they can’t legally do the same thing.

And it just got better. On long-haul flights, one can watch ads before the on-demand movies (you can actually skip the ads if you want). One of the ads is for Silversea which is a luxury condos company aimed at expats. The ad shows a video of the place with gorgeous Westerners doing some shopping, sunbathing, and having a good time. And the caption reads: “No capital gains tax; no currency controls; no restriction on foreign ownership; no inheritance tax; no withholding tax for sale of properties; no value added tax”. That’s all. Nothing is said about the place itself. Clearly, businesses in Singapore know what a difference the island-state’s tax system can make to foreigners desiring to invest their money. This is global tax competition at work for you. Actually, one should rather call it “institutional competition.” This is the way Singapore Inc. establishes its name and reputation. 

I can’t imagine such an ad on Olympic Air, Air France, Iberia, Alitalia, British Airways, or United, just to name a few. Of course, institutional competition takes place among the 50 States in the US (at least, it used to). And who knows; when New Jersey's and California’s fiscal situations become disastrous (in a few months time), we may see ads on Southwest Airlines telling us how great life in Texas is.

Comments

[cswake]

My limited understanding of airline history is that Southwest got its initial foothold by selectively choosing its flight attendants:
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/aircraft-pictures/2008/08/1970s-southwest-airlines-stewa.html

[Jared Paine]

Yep. We already see ads (on TV, and running a lot) with Arnold telling us how fantastic California is to work in. Those advertisements giving the pitch on why I should move my business to California are always a laugh-getter when we see them.

[Current]

I used to fly Singapore airlines to Korea for my job. It is very good. Though they used to wake you up in the middle of the "night" and offer you pot-noddles or ice cream, I found that disturbed my sleep.

It'll be interesting to see how many westerners move to Singapore based on their policies.

[FC]

Airlines should have "do not disturb" signs for transcontinental flights. Sometimes I don't want to be woken for a meal and sometimes I do.

[Daniel Klein]

Awesome. Thanks.

BTW, has anyone else noticed that airport culture and the airline literature tends to be highly soc-dem?

[Tan Kim Seng]

Sure Singapore doesn't tax you like they do in Europe.

But Singapore also doesn't have the social safety nets Europe has for its citizens.

So which do you prefer?

[David Andersson]

While the tax rates seem attractive, I'm not sure if anyone around here would actually like to live there, much less be a citizen. Spending a month there once, I learned that Singapore citizens must save 40% of their income (for housing and education), that censorship is a fact of life (check out the Press Freedom Index), that college professors are required to enforce dress codes among their students (no shorts), and that you can only drive a car if you bid for a Certificate of Entitlement, which gives you the right to actually drive your car for 10 years. Note also that public housing ("HDB estates"), in which 85% of the population live, are subject to neighborhood racial quotas, and that the government subsidizes high-income citizens to get more kids. Regardles of whether you like chewing gum or not, Singapore is a pretty restrictive place.

[Kevin46]

In my experience, BA cabin crew in First and Club World, whether young and handsome or not,never disturb passengers if they are sleeping and will endeavour to serve something before landing.

[Evan Harper]

Singapore Airlines is a state-owned enterprise. How do you like them hot towels?

[Paul Johnson]

Flying economy on SA is like first class on other airlines.

I was told many years ago by an insider that although SA is state-owned the government showed common sense in choosing an experienced airline executive as the first CEO (after the split from Malaysian Airlines) and leaving him alone to "get on with it."

[Paul Johnson]

On the safety-net question:

The Singapore philosophy is the same one that Europe used to have - that families are the real safety net, not the government.

But as families have fewer and fewer children, that is certainly a problem for the future...

[monkey think, monkey post]

> But Singapore also doesn't have the
> social safety nets Europe has for its
> citizens.

Are there laws prohibiting Singaporeans that want such a social safety net to get together and form one on a voluntary basis?

[Dhruv]

I moved from California (Bay area) to Singapore in Jan.

Singapore does have a some safety net (public provident fund) although it does not have subsidized health insurance or unemployment benefits. (note: umemployment rate about 2%)

I miss California weather/culture but Singapore lifestyle is actually pretty good. Most of the government restriction enhance quality of life and I dont mind public transport/ censorship.

[Jim Rose]

Comparing the success of Hong Kong and Singapore apparently differs a lot if you compare consumption per head rather than GDP per head.

As for Lee Kuan Yew, a leading official in the British colonial administration in the 1950s described him as the absolutely the smartest fellow around, but such a thug.

I watched a TV interview of Lee a few months ago. He still has a razor sharp mind at age 86.

His analysis in that interview of why Afghanistan was going to be a quagmire for the USA was as sharp a real politic analysis as any you might encounter.

He delayed his own son’s rise to the throne because Lee senior thought his son had to prove he got to be Prime Minister under his own steam.

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