This post was mentioned on Twitter by CommAMMO: Driving Me Crazy: Southwest Didn’t Err http://bit.ly/bZpwCd Anyone else smell “publicity stunt?”…

On each count…

a) Who cares what he says? And why would anyone think they are so important that their opinion of what Tiger should say counts for anything? Why should I — or anyone — care what ESPN’s Mike Tirico wants to hear him say? Tiger cheated on his wife. That behavior — and any response — is between him and his wife/family. And for the media who say, “Yes, but he presented this image of being an honorable man, blahblahblah…” well, shame on us for buying it.

b) If it’s a bogus event, don’t cover it. Don’t go along, don’t buy it. Ignore him. It’ll start the process of not falling for this cult of personality. And if the response is “well, it’s news, so we have to cover it.” OK, then stop whining.

Sheeshhh….

Some years ago, my brother-in-law observed that people, generally, seemed to expect that they will go through life without ever being offended. Further, that being offended by something is a grievous personal slight, punishable by law.

I don’t like it one bit.

Kevin Smith CHOSE to fly SWA.

He has flown SWA previously.

He is self described as “fat” and has been for a while.

SWA has a policy regarding “customers of size.”

So, in my opinion, enough from Kevin Smith. And SWA, you’ve apologized for the inconvenience, as you have done via social media with plenty of passengers previously. I thought SWA was prepared and handled it in a way that is consistent with their corporate personality. You can stop apologizing now.

Finally, if privacy is an issue and the reason he’s buying two seats, why is he on SWA? Fly another airline that’s got a VIP lounge where he can wait and board into a big first-class or business seat where nobody’s going to bother him.

I agree that the truth is somewhere in between — and indeed, perhaps they’re applying their policy haphazardly.

One could ask, too, whether the increasing size of American passengers will lead to bigger, not smaller, seats and larger aircraft — 29″ pitch is mighty tight for even a 5’9″ 185 pounder like me!

Thanks again for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it!

He doesn’t buy two (and three!) seats at a clip because he’s fat. He buys them because a) he can afford to do so; b) because he doesn’t like to sit next to people (arrogant, but fine, he can afford it); and c) if his wife travels with him (who is, BTW, a super skinny actress) they can have a whole row.

There are several issues at play here.

One, SWA is NOT following their policy consistently. There was another ‘person of size’ three rows behind Kevin. Why wasn’t he asked to leave too? In fact, why weren’t ALL people of size asked to leave or forced to buy two seats if there was SUCH a safety concern. Hmmm, perhaps they were smart enough to know a class-action lawsuit when they see one.

Two, the SWA folks made an assumption that Kevin buys two seats due to his size versus his privacy. I doubt they even knew who he was…so that tells me, they profiled him and made the wrong assumptions.

Three, SWA is a “social” company. As such, they should be prepared for ANY type of social media issue that might occur with ANY person (Heck, it could have been you or me!).

There are a lot of issues with this story, on both sides. Methinks the truth is somewhere in between.