Friday, February 26th, 2010
San Francisco-based Virgin America Airlines has its own “docu-series” starting up on March 24th at 9:30 PM on the CW – it’s called Fly Girls (and it’s not to be confused with the In Living Color/Jennifer Lopez kind of Fly Girls from the 90’s).
Take a look. Meet Mandalay, a local “girl” who’s a Virgin America flight attendant based out of SFO in real life. Listen to her go on about the “romance of aviation” and the benefits of choosing Virgin America, the only California-based airline left by the way.
Barbie, Skipper, and the ”ethnic girlfriends of Barbie“ (or, more politely, a ”mini- United Nations of races and ethnicities“) are coming soon to KBCW-TV channel 44 / 45 and all the CW stations across America. Oh yes, their “real” names (or “reel” names) are Tasha, Louise, Mandy (or Mandi), Nikole and Farrah:
Doesn’t this promo shot from the CW Network of former beauty queen Nikole look just like a Virgin America ad?
This show is going to be something like eight half-hour Virgin America infomercials complete with 30-second commercials for shampoo and cosmetics. Nevertheless, it’s going to be better than NBC’s high-budget San Francisco-based Trauma serial, that’s a given from the get-go. (Wonder if cheeky Virgin Airlines founder Sir Richard Branson will make an appearance or two…)
Just discovered that my aging Trinitron (that could be older than you) actually receives channel 44 so I’ll be sure to tune in to check out the debut.
Excelsior, Ever Upward.
Now, meet the Fly Girls and get more deets after the jump.
Farrah Williams
Hometown Airport: LAX
Must Have Travel Accessories: Lip balm and a camera
Travel Tips: “Be nice to fellow travelers and flight attendants. It makes for a more pleasant experience all the way around.”
Security Checkpoint Tips: “Don’t make eye contact. Strip down quick so you’re not holding up the line.”
Years with Virgin America: 2 ½
Louise Nguyen
Hometown Airport: LAX (currently SFO)
Must Have Travel Accessories: Moisturizer and lip balm
Travel Tips: “While on the plane, always wear your shoes in the restroom!”
Security Checkpoint Tips: “Get in line behind someone who has already taken their shoes off, and who is not juggling a ton of things in their hands, and then do the same.”
Years with Virgin America: 2
Mandy Roberts
Hometown Airport: PHX (currently SFO)
Must Have Travel Accessory: A big, soft pashmina that can be used as a pillow or blanket.
Travel Tips: “Drink an endless amount of water.”
Security Checkpoint Tips: “Wear slip-on shoes with socks, if possible. It’s yucky to wait in line with bare feet on the dirty floor.”
Years with Virgin America: 2
Nikole Rubyn
Hometown Airport: SMF (Sacramento)
Must Have Travel Accessory: Visine
Travel Tips: “Always wear or bring socks with you to walk through security!”
Security Checkpoint Tips: “Don’t wear all of your jewelry to the airport, keep it in small bags and put it on after you get through security.”
Years with Virgin America: 2
Tasha Dunnigan
Hometown Airport: SMF (Sacramento)
Must Have Travel Accessory: Cell phone
Travel Tips: “Don’t forget your common sense at home.”
Security Checkpoint Tips: “Have all of your things in order and pay attention.”
Years with Virgin America: 2
“Fly Girls” is from Collins Avenue Productions, with executive producers Jeff Collins (“Bridezilla 3, 4 & 5,” “The Exterminators”) and Colin Nash (“The Hills,” “The City”) and co-executive producers Larry Bond and Porter Gale.
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Tags: "ethnic girlfriends of Barbie, 12, 2010, 24, 4.4, 45, 6005, ad, advertising, airlines, airport, Alternative Programming, Ambhar Tequila, America, Banana Republic, Barbie, based, bay area, Belvedere Vodka, c. w., cable, channel, Colin Nash, Collins Avenue, Collins Avenue Productions, doc, docu, docu-series, docudrama, documentary, doll, drama, Elevate, Farrah, Farrah Williams, film, filming, flight, flight attendants, florida, fly girls, hometown, hub, info, infomercial, Jeff Collins, Kristen Vadas, la, Lagasse's Stadium, Larry Bond, las vegas, launch party, lax, los angeles, Louise, Louise Nguyen, mandalay, Mandi, Mandy, Mandy Roberts, march, mercial, miami, network, nevada, new york, nichole, Nikole, Nikole Rubyn, Palazzo, phx, Porter, Primetime Fare Sale, Productions, reality, red, red carpet, richard branson, sacramento, San Francisco, Senior Vice President, series, SFO, show, sir, Skipper, smf, stew, stewardess, stewardesses, Tasha, Tasha Dunnigan, teammates, television, The CW, The Hills, TV, TY KU, VeeV, VeeV Acai Spirit, VeeVa La Fly Girls, virgin, virgin america, VX, wednesdays, wifi
Posted in TV, advertising, airlines | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Well, you can read the press release below. Or better yet, check out the refreshingly frank Wikipedia entry on Swiss International Air Lines and/or the prior SwissAir, which followed the Mckinsey & Company’s “Hunter Strategy” for too long. (You can read about that fiasco in B-School.)
Billions of bailout dollars (or whatever) later, the Swiss sort of have a vibrant national carrier again.
Anyway, if you’re flying to Switzerland, this will do. The Airbus A340 jumbo is nobody’s idea of a successful design (what with its surplus of fuel-sucking engines in this Big Twin Era), but it’ll get you there and back, six days a week, as a pampered guest of SWISS CEO Harry Hohmeister (his real name, srsly).
Imagine this bird at SFO:
And British Airways isn’t pleased about this development at all, but oh well.
All the deets after the jump.
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Tags: 2, 2009, 2010, 340, a340, airbus, airport, boston, carrier, chicago, crossair, gavin newsom, Harry Hohmeister, international, International Air Lines, june, los angeles, Ltd, LX 38, LX 39, Mayor, miami, montreal, new york, Newark, non-stop, San Francisco, service, SFO, SFO-ZRH, Swiss, SWISS Business, SWISS Economy, SWISS First, Swiss International Air Lines Ltd, swissair, switzerland, ZRH, ZRH-SFO, zurich
Posted in aircraft, airlines | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Oyster Hotel Reviews recently sent some of its “reporters” to the 415, and man oh man, they took pictures of everything inside of 47 of our nicer joints. So if you’re obsessed with what your potential hotel room will look like, then you’re going to want to see this.
Click to soak up the new San Francisco section.
See all the pics of individual hotel rooms? Oh man, that’s a lot of photos – and they’re all the same basic style, very straightforward with lots of fish-eye lens shots. (Images would look very different if you unleashed the kids from CaliberSF and let them roam San Francisco’s finest hotel rooms, of course.)
But if you want to see how things look, like if you want to see multiple angles of the big flat screen TV in the Astor Suite at the Reeg, well have at it.
Another thing: Oyster has listed our pros and cons for tout le monde to see. Here’s a selection:
Pros:
Sea lions at Pier 39
Liberalism and political activism
Epicenter of gay rights movements
Thriving gay scene, especially in Castro District
Cons:
Microclimates within the city means it can be sunny in one neighborhood and gray in the next
Taxis can be frustratingly few and far between.
Vagrancy and panhandling are common.
Locals consider some areas, like Fisherman’s Wharf and the Castro, intolerable tourist traps.
Street parking can be a blood sport; hotel parking is expensive.
(Very) slight chance of earthquakes
Boy, they’ve got us pegged, huh?
Anyway, they’ve also done New York, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Miami, the Caribbean – the list goes on. Check it out, after the jump.
Ahora, el mundo es su ostra!
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Tags: Caribbean, Carribean, cons, district, financial, hawaii, hotel, hotel reviews, las vegas, los angeles, miami, new york, nob hill, oyster, oyster hotel reviews, photographs, photos, pics, pros, reviews, room, San Francisco, shots, soma, suite, union square
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Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Phone books – they’re useless, right? What are they good for? Absolutely nothing. I’ll say it again. Hooot! Absolutely nothing.
So let’s hear it for Dr. Leland Yee, Ph.D, Assistant Senate President pro Tempore Extraordinaire, the fightingest Senator in California, as he takes on the Telephone Book Industry on behalf of The People.
A brief wait on the doorstep for a few days until someone puts all these things into the recycling:
Your days are numbered, you mandatory telephone books.
Read all about it:
San Mateo County Leaders and Environmental Advocates Call for Consumer Choice on White Pages
Yee and Papan: Mandatory delivery of white pages wastes paper, energy, and scarce local government resources
SACRAMENTO – Following the successful efforts of Cleveland, Ohio and Miami, Florida, California could become the largest jurisdiction to give telephone customers a choice in receiving the white pages directory. Today, Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) and Millbrae Councilwoman Gina Papan announced they will pursue state legislation to prohibit telephone companies from delivering the white pages unless the customer opts-in to receiving it.
“The requirement that phone companies must deliver the white pages comes from an era before the internet and other means of obtaining phone numbers,” said Yee. “At a time when Californians are looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint, we should give them that choice, particularly when very few customers still use the white pages.”
“Ending the unnecessary distribution of the white pages is a step forward that we can take at the local level to address the global issue of climate change. I am proud to take the lead on this issue to help save the environment and reduce local recycling costs,” said Millbrae City Councilmember Gina Papan. “I would like to thank Senator Yee for his responsiveness in taking on this important legislation on our behalf.”
All the deets, after the jump
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Tags: advertising, books, california, California Public Utilities Commission, cleveland, Councilwoman, CPUC, delivery, florida, gina papan, google, law, leland yee, mandatory, miami, Millbrae, Ohio, pages, Phonebook Free SF, recycling, San Francisco, San Mateo, telephone, telephone books, universal service, white, yellow
Posted in advertising, environment, government | 2 Comments »
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Look what’s coming to the intersection of 10th Street and Mission in the western SOMA – a huge billboard demanding the release of Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez, otherwise known as the Cuban Five.
To help pay for the billboard, the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five is throwing a party tonight in the Mission at Centro Del Pueblo, 474 Valencia.
A writer from the New York Times detects some irony:
High-ranking officials in the Cuban government, which regularly jails people without public trial for speaking out against Communism, talk at length and in detail about the lack of evidence in the case, and they rail about the lack of “due process” in American courts.
But, as always, you make the call.
via STML’s photostream - a shot from Cuba, where outdoor billboards are all the rage.
Tags: 5, Antonio Guerrero, billboard, brothers to the rescue, california, castro, cuba, cuban, elian, Elián González, Fernando Gonzalez, five, Gerardo Hernandez, JAMES C. McKINLEY, JAMES McKINLEY, miami, miami five, Ramon Labañino, Rene Gonzalez, San Francisco
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
