The Smartest Win Is the Win Win

A note to young leaders.

Instead of settling a dispute in court, have you ever considered settling it with an arm-wrestle?

In 1990, Southwest Airlines launched a new slogan: “Just Plane Smart.”

What they didn’t know was that a small aircraft repair company, called Stevens Aviation, had already trademarked “Plane Smart” years earlier.

While Stevens’ lawyers pondered a legal missive to Southwest, a renegade marketing VP chose a different approach – he sent a cheeky letter to Southwest’s legendary CEO, Herb Kelleher:

“Dear Mr. Kelleher,

We LOVE your new ads that use the clever, creative, effective “Plane Smart” theme! We can testify to its effectiveness since we’ve been using it in our own ads for a long time.

In the true fun-loving spirit on which Southwest Airlines was founded, we challenge you to a duel to see who gets to keep “Plane Smart” – big ol’ Southwest or little bitty Stevens.

(Please — no lawyers!)

We challenge you to a sleeves-up, best-two-out-of-three arm wrestling match between you and our chairman, at high noon on Monday, January 27, 1992.”

Kelleher instantly recognised the publicity potential of the stunt and promptly leaked the letter to the press.

Billed as the “Malice in Dallas”, the duel drew national media attention and a crowd of 15,000 to the Sportatorium arena in Dallas.

What could have been a bitter, expensive lose-lose litigation, became a win-win publicity stunt.

Southwest earned an estimated $6 million in free publicity, and Stevens’ chairman later said the event boosted their name recognition so dramatically that the company grew 25% annually for the next four years.

As Kelleher was fond of saying – take your competition seriously, but never yourself.