Ode to Hate from Spirit Airlines on Vimeo.
As an attention-getting attempt to co-opt social-media criticism, it's not without precedent. See, for instance, the "Celebrities Read Mean Tweets" (about themselves) videos from "Jimmy Kimmel Live"; the seventh installment from May, starring Julia Roberts, Ashton Kutcher, Gary Oldman, Sofia Vergara and others, has racked up more than 19 million views on YouTube.
Anyway, how's the Spirit stunt going?
Frankly, the hatefest on Twitter has been a little underwhelming so far. Given the truly stellar hatefulness of some of the tweets mentioned in Spirit's video, you'd think the haters of the world would be inspired to crank up their game a bit.
Instead, the complaints about Spirit on Twitter from the last day or two seem rather run-of-the-mill and just ... defeated. (As if no social-media stunt or miles giveaway could get them back on Spirit, in fact.)
Well what do ya know @SpiritAirlines #delayed yet again! #neverontime #worstairline
— Melissa Chiarello (@NuggetMC) July 10, 2014
Thanks @SpiritAirlines where they are NEVER ON TIME. Biggest con artists in the skies.
— CapitalGains83 (@CapitalGains83) July 10, 2014
Spirit Airlines is terrible. By far the worst airplane experience I have ever had.
— Blake Miller (@B_Mills9) July 10, 2014
@SpiritAirlines it's official you're the worst
— ♡ (@bricruzz) July 10, 2014
@SpiritAirlines You sent my bag to LGA, I am at DFW, no one will help me, no one will answer the phone, no one seems to care. #NeverAgain
— Todd Sedlak (@SergeantSedlak) July 10, 2014
I never want to fly spirit airlines again....
— Megz. (@megkahl) July 10, 2014
Those last two tweets in particular underscore the logic problem inherent to the promotion. Spirit Airlines wants its miserable customers to be miserable again? Wut?
In April, it's worth noting, the Airfarewatchdog blog published a poll revealing that its readers think Spirit has, by far, the rudest flight attendants. Given that, could we all be missing the point? Spirit may technically be an airline -- just barely -- but perhaps its real raison d'être is to serve the masochist community.
Maybe Spirit Airlines is actually an S&M club with wings. In which case, hatethousandmiles.com makes perfect sense.
Simon Dumenco is the "Media Guy" columnist for Advertising Age. You can follow him on Twitter @simondumenco.