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To: Clarksterh who wrote (32281)	6/14/1999 7:19:00 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Off topic - WSJ piece about airline running (annoying) video of fish swimming. June 14, 1999 Frustrated Fliers Beg United To Deep-Six Its Fish Footage By JANE COSTELLO THE WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE EDITION There's something fishy going on in the friendly skies. During the boarding process for long-haul flights, United Airlines (www.ual.com) is now showing a video of tropical fish designed to soothe the savage passenger. Carp and angel fish float by on video screens as passengers bang overhead bins to the beat of New Age music. United is not the only airline to enlist the fish to facilitate boarding; American (www.aa.com) has been playing the same video for the past few months. "We picked the fish because some psychological research says it's soothing," says Bob Williams, United's manager of in-flight entertainment. But the video is having the opposite effect on some of the airline's best customers. "The first time I saw it, I thought it was really odd," says Kyle MacLean, a United frequent flier from Crawford, Colo. "And the more you fly, the more irritating it gets." The fish went live within days of United's announcement about its new "Time to Go!" campaign, an effort by the airline to "gently educate" passengers about the need for speed in the boarding process. "They're literally herding people now," says Mr. MacLean, who says he heard people mooing as they lined up to board a flight from Los Angeles last month. "Then you get in there, and that damn fish thing is going." Fish Make Fliers Frantic Although the fish are supposed to have a calming effect, they can get some people jumping. John Goldwater, a top-tier Mileage Plus member from Costa Mesa, Calif., was on a flight from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles in April where passengers who boarded the plane heard the New Age music blaring and began pleading with flight attendants to deep-six the fish. "There must have been 20 people coming back up the aisle asking them to turn it off," he says. "At first the flight attendants were reluctant, but when it became obvious that the flight was going to be delayed, they turned it off." The fish have inspired deep sentiments in a select group of flyers who like to carp about carp via the FlyerTalk bulletin board section of WebFlyer (www.webflyer.com), the Web site for InsideFlyer magazine. Matt Wald, a United flier from Bethesda, Md., recently posted his poetic reaction to the fish to fellow FlyerTalkers: "I do not like them, they are not topical, I do not like them, even though they are tropical. When I board I want to booze it Not listen to awful New Age music I do not like fish when I board I do not like them to look toward." The video can be seen on most of United's long-haul jets, and passengers can expect the fish to be swimming through June. "It's a test for us; we'll see how it goes," says Mr. Williams. "We may need to change it more often." Copyright © 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.