Hey There, Sweaty Palms!

Giving advertising a macabre twist, Pacific Air Lines is seeking to lure passengers by selling spoof instead of frills. "HEY THERE! YOU WITH THE SWEAT IN YOUR PALMS," read the headline that kicked off its nationwide campaign. "Most people are scared witless of flying," it went on. Moreover, the ad revealed, every time a P.A.L. plane takes off a pilot wonders "if this is it." Explaining the odd campaign, New York Lawyer Matthew E. McCarthy, the trunk line's chief executive and biggest shareholder, said: "It's basically honest. We spoof the passengers' concern, but at least we admit they have it."

Creator of the campaign is Hollywood Humorist Stan Freberg, best known for his takeoffs on Dragnet and his Madison Avenue musings on behalf of Chun King chow mein and the United Presbyterian Church ("The blessings you lose may be your own"). Besides newspaper layouts, Freberg's program includes patter from stewardesses (on landing: "We made it! How about that?"). It also features hot-pink lunch pails which are distributed to passengers and contain such items as a handkerchief-size child's security blanket, which the stewardess demonstrates by rubbing it against her cheek. Freberg plans to paint one of Pacific's Boeing 727s to look like a locomotive, complete with wheels on the fuselage and a cowcatcher on the nose. Inside, passengers will hear choo-choos over the loudspeakers.

Behind the buffoonery, well intentioned but risky as it may be, is the simple fact that P.A.L., which flies in Oregon, Nevada and California, yearns for a bigger chunk of the West Coast business, which is contested by seven other airlines, including United and Western. Last year was not happy for Pacific--net income dropped from $700,337 in 1965 to $150,716.

By the end of the week it was still too early to judge the campaign's effectiveness. But it seemed less than coincidental that P.A.L.'s vice president of marketing and its director of advertising suddenly resigned.

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