Lauren
While Virgin Atlantic is now one of the largest and most popular airlines, it didn’t start out that way. If British Airways had their way back in the early 1990s, Virgin Atlantic might not exist today at all.
In what is now aptly known as the “dirty tricks” campaign, British Airways workers gained access to Virgin Atlantic’s online passenger information and called passengers pretending to be from Virgin. These employees would then tell passengers that their Virgin Atlantic flights were canceled and switch them onto British Airways flights, effectively poaching several clients from Virgin Atlantic.
This unconventional and unethical business practice led Virgin Atlantic to take British Airways to court for libel, and Virgin ended up with a $945,000 payout that they were able to pour back into their business.
While the Virgin Atlantic vs. British Airways lawsuit is a major example of businesses using notorious tactics to try and take down their competition, the use of “dirty tricks” has taken off outside of the runway.
Here are a few dirty tricks and sly campaigns that other businesses have used in order to undercut their competitors.
Sprint poaches Verizon’s spokesperson
While completely legal, it’s hard not to think that Sprint played a little dirty when they hired Verizon’s former “Can You Hear Me Now?” guy, Paul Marcarelli, for their phone ads.
In his Sprint commercials, Marcarelli says things like, “I used to ask if you can hear me now with Verizon, not anymore, I’m with Sprint now.” or “I switched to Sprint, and millions more have, too. Can you hear that?” referencing his former Verizon ads as a way to give Sprint an upper hand. While this tactic is a bit shady, it’s memorable, funny, and definitely effective.
Ryan Reynolds creates a new “Peloton Girl” commercial
When Peloton released a Christmas ad, “The Gift that Gives Back,” where a husband surprises his wife with one of their bikes, they didn’t exactly receive the type of national attention they were expecting. The ad quickly went viral after people noticed that the wife, played by actress Monica Ruiz, seems increasingly anxious as she works out with many noting that made her husband’s gift seem controlling.
In the midst of this controversy, actor Ryan Reynolds capitalized on these concerns to create his own ad called “The Gift that Doesn’t Give Back” to sell Aviation Gin. In his ad, which uses “Peloton Girl” Monica Ruiz, it is clear that Ruiz has recognized the controlling nature of her husband’s Peloton gift as she downs Aviation Gin with friends that tell her she’s safe now.
This hilarious, albeit sly, campaign was a big success, and an example of what can happen when you take the opportunity to jump on a viral sensation before the moment passes.
AMD capitalizes on Intel’s anniversary
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), had a dirty trick up its sleeve for Intel’s 40th-anniversary celebration in 2018. After Intel announced that it was giving away 8,086 limited edition processors in order to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the x86 processor, AMD announced that they would give their own processor to 40 Intel giveaway winners that were willing to trade.
While this dirty trick did help draw away some attention from Intel, it was all in good fun with Intel responding to this tactic by saying that if AMD wanted an Intel CPU, they could have just asked.
