Remember Southwest's 'Wanna Get Away' ads? They're back!

Remember those Southwest Airlines “Wanna Get Away” ads that featured folks looking to skip town after an awkward blunder? They're about to make a comeback. The ads initially debuted in 1998 and ran for about a decade. It’s been almost a decade since those ads last aired, but they'll begin running again Tuesday in six markets. The campaign will make its national debut on NBC's Thursday night National Football League broadcast. Bob Jordan, Southwest’s chief commercial officer, says it’s a good time to revive the campaign following the company's ongoing efforts to update the look of everything from its airplanes and logo to its crew uniforms. “This is a continuation of a two- to three-year journey we’ve been on to update the brand,” Jordan said. “We’re celebrating our past and putting a little bit of a new look on the brand. We have updated the aircraft, in and out. We’ve updated the airports. We’ve been updating our employee uniforms. And now we’re taking a look at our advertising.” The original Wanna Get Away campaign proved so popular after first airing in 1998 that Southwest stuck with it until 2008. In fact, “Wanna Get Away” is now the name for the category of Southwest’s lowest, advance-purchase fares.<br/>