I tried not to do it. Really. I wasn’t going to write about Spirit’s MILF sale, especially since every other travel blogger has already done it. But after reading the latest round of posts on the subject this morning, I just had to do it.

Why is everyone freaking out about this?!?

The sale ended last night, so this is old news, but the strange controversy lives on. Brief background: Spirit Airlines (based in Ft Lauderdale) launched a sale called the MILF sale. That was said to stand for “Many Islands Low Fares” but in pop culture it means “Mother I’d Like to F***.”

Spirit claimed they didn’t know what it meant, but please, that can’t be true. Spirit is the king of these types of promotions, and I’ve written about it many times. My personal favorite was the Mullet sale with the line “Business in the Front, Party in the Back.” Cheesy? Hell yeah, but I’ll bet it’s effective.

Think about it. How many people know Spirit? Probably not that many in the grand scheme of things. How many people like cheap fares? Um, everyone. If you have extremely cheap fares, you aren’t going to be able to spend a lot of marketing, so, how do you get people to know that you have those fares? Get the media to tell everyone for you. How do you do that? Do something outrageous that will grab their attention.

This time, they’ve succeeded. I’ve seen this sale picked up not just by bloggers but by the national media over the last couple of days. Everyone is talking about it, and most people are “outraged” at such a thing. Let me say something to those outraged people. First of all, you people need to find a hobby. Second of all, you’ve fallen right into the airline’s trap. The more you talk about it, the more likely they are to do it again. Way to go.

Remember, this is Spirit. This isn’t an airline trying to be anything other than cheap transportation. Is it offensive? I really don’t see how it is, but if everyone else thinks it is, that’s better for them. So, if you really are outraged by this, then stop complaining. You’re just helping them.

I, on the other hand, think that this is a really smart move. Everyone is talking about it, and that’s going to lead people to their website to take a look. If even a fraction of those resulted in bookings, it was a successful promotion.