Travelocity Caves to Ban on Roaming Gnome: Management Cowardice at Its Yellowest

Travelocity has agreed to stop using a couple of its Roaming Gnome ads because they depicted the experience of using Priceline (PCLN), a competitor, as akin to being eaten by piranhas or having knives thrown at you. This is management cowardice at its yellowest. There was nothing wrong with the ads; the ad industry watchdog that demanded they be taken down is wrong on its facts; and Travelocity should have stood up for the gnome, on which its brand equity is highly dependent.

The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which referees disputes between angry advertisers, agreed with a complaint from Priceline that argued the Roaming Gnome's claim that bidding on hotel rooms was more stressful than buying them outright on Travelocity. One ad showed the gnome being eaten in a tank of pirhanas:

Another suggested that bidding for rooms was as stressful as being a circus knife-thrower's assistant:

Somehow, the "experts" (who refer to themselves that way in their press releases) at NAD convinced each other that consumers would take those gags literally. They ruled that Travelocity should take them down. Travelocity agreed, NAD reported:

Travelocity, in its advertiser's statement, said it "does not dispute the NAD's holding that using 'Name Your Own Price' is not as excruciatingly awful as being eaten by piranhas, being the target of a knife thrower, or being burned alive on a spit. Despite the fact that Travelocity believes that consumers recognize such claims as humorous and extreme exaggerations that are not to be taken literally, Travelocity will abide with the NAD's findings in this regard."

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