Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
La-Z-Boy Wants to 'Decline to Recline' Just in Time for the Holidays
November 26,
2024 by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry 
A record Thanksgiving travel rush is underway, and La-Z-Boy, the iconic American furniture company that invented the recliner nearly 100 years ago, is pleading with airline passengers to keep their seats upright to avoid making crammed fellow passengers even more uncomfortable.
Airplane etiquette — specifically if and when it is appropriate to recline — is a highly charged and polarizing subject. In recent years, dozens of viral clips featuring in-flight incidents sparked by passengers reclining have flooded social platforms, online media, and broadcast airwaves. These incidents are even more likely this week as AAA projects a record 5.84 million Americans will fly domestically for the holiday.
The La-Z-Boy #BanReclining campaign calls on airplane passengers who always recline, occasional recliners, and anti-recliners alike to sign a pledge committing them to keeping their seats upright. By signing the pledge at BanReclining.com, passengers can win one of five prize packages that include a free La-Z-Boy recliner (valued up to $1,000) and a $500 airfare credit.
“La-Z-Boy has spent nearly 100 years innovating and crafting the most comfortable, high-quality recliners. While this continues to set our products apart, we believe comfort shouldn’t come at others’ expense,” said Nelly Martinez Garza, Senior Director of Consumer Marketing, La-Z-Boy. “Our #BanReclining campaign is simple: Just because you can recline doesn’t mean you always should.”
Through a PSA-style digital video, a series of social media vignettes, and influencer collaborations, La-Z-Boy’s #BanReclining campaign captures the sometimes not-so-friendly skies where the simple act of reclining can cause serious turmoil. Campaign content depicts the spectrum of emotions experienced by passengers when their already-limited space is reduced by a reclining seat ahead of them while urging all passengers to “do the upright thing.”
The #BanReclining campaign will appear in contexts meant to reach airline passengers during their holiday travels. The paid media plan includes digital billboards in New York City’s Times Square, one of the world’s busiest tourist attractions, as well as in-terminal Wi-Fi pre-roll and digital signage throughout the concourses at three major hubs that are among the busiest in the U.S.: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
For more information, follow La-Z-Boy on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.