Perhaps the greatest travel industry advertising campaign ever was Cunard Line’s “Getting There is Half the Fun!” series.
In the early 1950s, Cunard executives understood that air transport would soon steal away business travelers and other passengers who needed to reach their destinations as quickly as possible. So, in an effort to maintain and perhaps even boost capacity levels, Cunard decided to turn out a series of advertisements that positioned the ocean liner as a destination as well as a means of conveyance. The overall idea was to make people believe that an ocean liner journey could be a cruise-like experience, packed with luxury, style, relaxation and glamour.
The result was a series of colorful “Getting There is Half the Fun!” advertisements that ran primarily in big, glossy US magazines such as Life, Look and the Saturday Evening Post. The catchphrase proved so durable that one occasionally still hears it employed today, often ironically, particularly by passengers jammed into the middle seat of a noisy, crowded airliner.
