Air Canada: Take Off, Eh

Air Canada should stick to what it does best: flying airplanes.

Canada’s national airline is meddling in Canada’s national game, and it’s ridiculous. AC is a major sponsor of the NHL, but after witnessing Boston Bruins defenceman Zdeno Chara’s massive hit on on Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty, the airline says the game is getting too violent, and is threatening to pull their ad dollars.

“From a corporate social responsibility standpoint, it is becoming increasingly difficult to associate our brand with sports events which could lead to serious and irresponsible accidents,” Air Canada warned in the letter. (as reported by CBC.ca)

This is like Cover Girl calling up the editors of Cosmopolitan saying the stories are too sexy, so get more conservative or we’re pulling our ads. Hockey is a rough sport, and Cosmo is a saucy magazine. Get over it!

Now, let me be clear: I’m not saying Chara’s check was fair game; I’m saying advertisers have no place in league policy discussions.

Everyone knows Air Canada’s customers love hockey. If they didn’t, the airline wouldn’t be advertising with the NHL in the first place. And those same customers are still going to games and tuning in to Hockey Night in Canada—they love the game, violent as it may be. So if Air Canada wants to market their services to them, they should go right ahead—but stay out of the politics and inner workings of the game.

Final thought: Instead of wasting time trying to fix imaginary problems for the NHL, perhaps AC should address their own problems, starting with their notoriously bad customer service.