Southwest Sent a Message Loud and Clear With Its Ad, Literally

Southwest Airlines is changing one of the quirkiest things about how it operates, and it knows passengers have thoughts. A lot of them. So the airline decided to face the backlash head-on—with a loud, chaotic new ad that throws subtlety out the window.

Titled “Are You Sitting Down?”, the commercial leans into the uproar surrounding Southwest’s plan to roll out assigned seating in 2026. 

For the first time in its history, the airline is abandoning its open-seating model on select flights.