United Airlines Complaint Song Breaks 1M Views in 4 Days

United Breaks Guitars, the sudden viral hit produced by distraught United Airways passenger Dave Carroll and his band, broke 1M views a mere 4 days after he posted it on YouTube.

According to his blog, Carroll decided to write the song after his guitar was broken in United's care and 9 months of back-and-forth resulted in no settlement. As he sings in his catchy song, "I've heard all your excuses and I've chased your wild gooses, and this attitude of yours I say must go."

Here's the incredibly short timeline:

• Monday - Carroll posts his video to YouTube
• Tuesday - United says in a public Twitter response "we've contacted him directly to make it right"
• Wednesday - CNN's Wolf Blitzer discusses it on air
• Friday - 1M+ YouTube views with 7,000 comments, 1M+ results in Google for search string "united breaks guitars," and 19,000 blog mentions -- not to mention the millions of viewers that watched it on CNN, other networks, and traditional media.

Carroll's goal was to get one million views in one year but he did more than just that. Remarkably, in these brief 4 days he changed United's Google search results page -- something marketers take great pains to protect. In web marketing it's often said, "You are what Google says you are," and right now 4 of the Google results on the first page for "United Airlines" point to this video. Seven of the first 10 results for a Google video search of United Airlines are damaging to the brand.

Carroll and his band are likely flying high after all this publicity but United Airlines has some serious recovery work to do.

Follow Andrew Cherwenka on Twitter: www.twitter.com/andrewcherwenka

Comments

[WorkingClass]

A rare victory for the people. Bravo!

[stevi]

It's amazing that these corporate giants believe consumers have no power. HA! Without consumers these giants would be dust. HA! It would be in their best interest to pay attention because we won't stand for their ill treatment, we have ways to make our opinion heard..... HA!

[Hefner]

YES...WELL, WE ALL KNOW ABOUT UNITED AIRLINES AND ITS DISGUSTING RELATIONS
WITH ITS CUSTOMERS...BUT, WHY, EXACTLY, MR.CARROLL, WAS UNITED'S COMPENSATION
REFUSED? IT WAS WHAT YOU ASKED FOR YOUR RUINED GUITAR AND, FINALLY, GIVEN...
I UNDERSTAND UNITED AIRLINES BUT I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU.

[PivotalForce]

I used to work in Customer Relations for a major computer company, and dealt with upset customers on a daily basis. My take is that he was offered too little, too late, and is now making a point. Personally, I say "good for him." Too many bean counters are in charge of customer service these days; they're penny wise and pound foolish.

[raker]

I hate flying, but more than that I despise United. We use them twice a year, and every single flight presents us with a little bit of hell in one way or another: Five-hour delays; three hours on the runway; lost luggage; surly "customer service"; fifteen dollars to check a bag; being shoehorned into a claustrophobic commuter plane; being boarded on a plane and then deboarded and sent to another airplane two gates away; getting a phone call as we're leaving the house for the airport telling us our flight's been canceled and they'll be happy to fly us the day after tomorrow (this happened to us last year; we missed the event we'd purchased tickets for.).

I'd rather spend christmas alone and take stay-cations than subject myself to these indignities again.

[vff]

Just bought a new hitch for my bikes. Plan to see the world that way. It is hard to see anything from 30k feet up and some trains go so fast - everything become a blur. Travel over the internet for business.

[sisterdebmac]

That thing rocks. No airline should ever mess with a musician who has the money to make slick, catchy videos.

[AERO]

He said he only spent $300 to make the video---and $160 of that was the sombreros and mustaches.

[scotia626]

love it love it loveit. so far this year i have flown 150000 miles on united. they dont treat people any better than guitars!!

[Schaz]

Unfortunately for United, that song is incredibly catchy! I can picture the band doing it in one of their shows, and the whole audience singing along, "United breaks guitars!" Brilliant.

[mediamarv]

So much better than customer service phone trees or faxing the CEO... I'm trying to write a song about Clover Ice Cream's (Sonoma county) decision to reduce their half-gallon containers to 1.5 qts, which is the new industry ripoff standard, then on top of that, raising the price nearly a dollar! I'm having trouble rhyming moo-cow tho'.

[FlippyO]

Boooooo. Pow! :)

[Telemachus]

Congress and the SCOTUS have stymied state regulation of airlines for overbooking, luggage liability and other forms of garden-variety theft and fraud. Until there is an airline passengers' bill of rights enacted on a federal level, this nonsense will continue and United will get NO sympathy from me. Fvck 'em.

[JJR60616]

I'm laughing so hard at this whole situation! And I think it's great.

But seriously, I think United Airlines is now going to have a bigger problem...after years of listening to their theme music, I seriously cannot remember it...at all. This Dave Carroll song on the other hand is not only going through my mind as I sit here, but the refrain "United Breaks Guitars" is immediately what I think of now when I see the UAL name or logo...

Professional advertisers can't buy this kind of consumer response for millions of dollars and Dave and some pals on their own time smack a home run grand slam...this is too too sweet! I'm sufficiently intrigued to have gone and looked up their tour schedule and they'll be at the Milwaukee Irish Fest, so I think I'll go if for no other reason than to toast his success!:)

[Tahut]

And he's promised two more songs on this theme too!

[Alan Barasch]

The music is Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

[LeftRight]

And if they'd just made things right sometime in the previous nine months, nothing would have happened, huh???? Imagine, a company messes something up for a customer, makes it right, and the customer doesn't complain!!!

[fpie]

Gee, maybe they shoulda just paid the man for the guitar.

[souldog71]

The airlines must shudder at the thought of paying for the luggage they damage. No, no, no they don't want to do that.