As I was reading through the most recent issue of BusinessWeek, I noticed a pretty sharp contrast in the approach taken by the airlines advertising therein. So, I thought it would be fun to put them all up next to each other and see what we can make of them. I went back a few issues to see what other ads have appeared lately, and came up with seven ads over the past month or so (just in BusinessWeek).

Take a quick look at the following 7 advertisements. Spend about a second or two looking at each one (if you click on an ad, a larger one will open up in a different window). Ready? Go:

So, what do you think? Can you tell me which 7 airlines you just looked at ads for? Which one did you find most appealing? Why? Least appealing? What did you take away from each ad? What do you think the airline wanted you to take away?

I have to say that, personally, I found the SIA (Singapore International Airlines) ad to be the most interesting/appealing to me. On the flip side, the first time I saw AirTran’s ad I couldn’t get myself to read all the text on the ad (which is really bad considering that I like this stuff). It took me a second to understood the message of Delta’s ad, but I’m not a gambler or card player at all. I found Korean Air’s ad visually interesting although I’m not really sure what the point was.

In an era when airline travel is increasingly commoditized, it’s interesting to see how airlines attempt to differentiate themselves through advertising.