Focusing on strengths and differentiation is nothing new to marketing, but those basic tenets seem to get lost in favor of cleverness and “wow” factors.

Southwest’s latest campaign really resonates, though.

Bags are important to flyers.  How often do you hear horror stories about airlines losing bags?  I know my Facebook news stream is littered with stories this holiday season of airlines losing their bags.

Southwest recognizes bags’ importance to customers, and plays off of that.

“Bags fly free” isn’t just about saving the customer money. Where other airlines are saying, “your bags are 1) an inconvenience and 2) an opportunity for us to make a few more dollars”, Southwest uses bags as an opportunity.

Their latest commercial paints a picture of burly men handling bags personally, and getting teary-eyed when they get on the plane and fly away.

“Bags are my life,” one handler says.

“I love bags,” another says, waving goodbye to his traveling friends.

That message, combined with the lack of fees, is Southwest saying to its customer that bags are important to you, so they’re important to the airline.   The implication is they won’t lose your bags, because they care — and the humans behind the actual baggage handling care.

It’s a starkly different picture than that of the “stereotypical baggage handler” — an angry man that’s doing his best to test the structural integrity of your baggage.

And it’s a refreshing change.  Travelers are tired of the “same old” from airlines, which includes late flights, nickel and dime charges at every opportunity, and lost luggage.

Southwest’s message, which revolves around something as simple as the lack of a fee around the first piece of luggage, effectively points out that they are an airline intent on bucking the trends set by their industry. And of winning the customer satisfaction battle.

I’m going to assume that very few of you answered with a resounding “Yes!”  Why, then, does the media treat their opinions as if they were newsworthy?  They’re no more qualified to present an opinion than you or me (but also no less qualified).  They’re just a couple of guys who happen to have cameras around them all the time.  They also happen to be complete wackjobs.

Most recently, Tom Cruise has thrown a tantrum about Southpark dissing Scientology and Charlie Sheen has declared that 9/11 was a conspiracy.

I wish the mainstream media would simply ignore it when these guys go off with their wacky opinions.  The media doesn’t air reports about Jimbo the Local Crazy Guy declaring the government is preparing for war with the planet Xarcon, and the wacky declarations from Cruise and Sheen aren’t much further inside the realm of reality.

They’re trying to get attention for their pet causes, and the media does them a favor by running with the stories.  Would anyone’s lives be any different if we just ignored them?

(Yes, yes, I know this blog post gives them even more attention, in its tiny little way, but that’s not the point.)