Malaysia Airlines (MAS), which is still reeling from the twin tragedies of MH370 and MH17, is pulling out all stops to win customers back. From great bargains and last minute deals, to running contests and giving away free flights. We don’t blame them – it has been a difficult year for our national carrier.
One such competition started on Monday and is open to those who book a MAS flight online until the end of the year. Wanna win free tickets from your nearest airport to “a destination in Malaysia to be determined by MAS”? Sure.
The only problem is, it’s part of their “My Ultimate Bucket List” campaign, where contestants had to explain, “What and where wold you like to tick off on your bucket list?”
See, the Merriam-Webster definition of bucket list is “a list of things that one has not done before but wants to do before dying” – which makes calling a Malaysia Airlines campaign as such pretty bizarre. We don’t deny that it’s awkward and maybe just a little too soon, but that is only if the figure of speech was taken literally. Let’s not forget the Oxford Dictionary’s definition of bucket list, which kinda explains what MAS intended to say:
Source: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/bucket-list
Still, it has angered netizens and effectively turned into a branding/marketing/PR disaster.
Netizens, especially, have taken to social media platforms to call the official campaign name all kinds of bad, chiding MAS’ agency/agencies for letting it pass, while others just think that it’s awkward. Word about “My Ultimate Bucket List” also got out to international news portals, which added fuel to fire.
As such, the “My Ultimate Bucket List” campaign appears to have been withdrawn, with the original competition link now leading to a 404 error page. What’s left behind, however, is a PDF of the competition’s terms and conditions, which can still be found here.
A case of “with good intentions but just too soon” and perhaps just a wrong choice of words? We think so too.
Awkward.