, October 31, 2013
This Frisk Has Been Brought to You By…
Poster for the Works Progress Administration's Household Service Demonstration Project. / Library of Congress
East Germany, you guys totally blew it. All those decades in which Checkpoint Charlie stood blank and advertisement-less were a lost opportunity. In America, luckily, we do things differently.
Today the airport security checkpoint—that special place where sobbing four-year-olds are patted down by perfect strangers just in case they’re rollin’ with Osama wannabes and intend to blow up a Dreamliner—is being remade by one of the greatest forces on Earth: the power of corporate branding.
Sponsored by Marriott’s SpringHill Suites and something called SecurityPoint Media–actual name!—new Transportation Security Administration checkpoints in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte Douglas airports are promising a “kinder, gentler” encounter with the state’s security apparatus. The news stories about this development manage to sound like they’re talking about a day spa in the suburbs. The coverage highlights the amenities that the redesigned checkpoints have, including “leather couches and chairs” and “new wall coverings with LED pastel-colored mood lighting and hanging pendant lights.” The Wall Street Journal claims that “pictures of lush green ferns, pink flowers and a blue cascade of water try to add a Zen-like feel.” That does sound very Zen.
Adding to the Zen-like atmosphere is advertising. Lots and lots of advertising. These are, after all, corporate-sponsored security checkpoints, a truly flawless blend of the national security state and the corporate adjunct sponsors who love it.
If you’re one of the reporters who typed one of these stories, I ask you: Do you personally believe that after seeing a fern or two, people being processed through a security checkpoint are likely to emerge out of the other end with a “Zen-like” feeling? Did you simply retype a press release, or did you actually visit one of these checkpoints and feel that calm feeling for yourself? Again, the Wall Street Journal:
After screening, new zones designers call ‘recompose’ areas have plush couches, high-top tables with foot bars for tying shoes, a big floor lamp and a mirror, all to help people get dressed again.
This begs the question: What kind of experience requires you to “recompose” yourself afterward?
The SecurityPoint Media website claims that the company is “the leader in airport passenger security checkpoint advertising and the innovator of the SecureTray System®.” America really is a grand experiment, and our national bias toward business will certainly smooth the way if things ever really get bad: This embarkation point is brought to you by Taco Bell. Try the crunchy gordita before you disappear!
Security checkpoints—like everything else with an open surface—are now an advertising medium. It warms the heart to know that someone stuck in a security line somewhere watched as one person after another was shuffled through machines and thought, Wow, we could associate corporate brands with that organization.
From now on when you think of the TSA, you’ll think of Marriott’s SpringHill Suites. That should simplify the list of hotel chains you would never consider booking.