http://www.usatoday.com/…

The group that created Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog has a new potential icon: Stephanie the airport screener.

A $1.3 million ad campaign launched this month teams the Ad Council and the Transportation Security Administration trying to change behavior of passengers who no longer automatically accept post-Sept. 11 airport security procedures. The public relations push explains the terrorist threat and the reasons behind annoyances at checkpoints.

A passenger focus group conducted for TSA by New York City business consulting firm Blue Lime found that “unquestioning compliance has diminished.” Passengers say they are more afraid of missing their flight than they are of an airplane being attacked, the 73-page Blue Lime report found.

In a 97-second video, Washington National Airport screener Stephanie Naar gently explains that homemade bombs “are the No. 1 threat to aircraft, and we know terrorists have concealed these items in shoes.” The TSA hopes to make passengers more accepting of removing footwear at checkpoints.

I think the fact that Blue Lime used language like “unquestioning compliance” says it all. These people want obediance. They don’t care about performing a good job as made obvious by the greater then 50% miss rate they have in their own tests. They don’t care about customer service made obvious by the huge amount of complains, the ridiculousness and randomness of their search policies, and at a fundamental level the fact they don’t perform their job as a result of customer demand but the dictate of politicians who have little accountability to anyone. They provide a “service” at the barrel of a gun. Who would expect professionalism in that case?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 10:01 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.