Southwest is catching some flak for touting that they don’t charge for bags while everyone else does. Specifically, its a Texas style battle between Southwest and Airtran.

Southwest has been pushing the ‘Grab Your Bag: It’s On’ ad on television, in which a bunch of Southwest baggage handlers line up on the runway and raise their shirts to show their ‘Battle Cry.’

Southwest Airlines 'It's On' ad

Passengers on another airline’s plane on the runway are shown the message. The ad has more of an impact because it starts with the handlers showing the message to passengers on a competing airline, but ends with a Southwest plane in the background and the words ‘Bags Fly Free’ in the foreground.

So far so good for Southwest, and surely their intent wasn’t to target a specific competitor. But apparently the plane was an Airtran plane, and Airtran felt obliged to respond.

Instead of putting out a response ad or filing a complaint, Airtran created a response video, ostensibly just for the sake of satisfying employees who demanded a response to Southwest. The video was posted on Airtran’s employee website and then they alerted the media about it.

The Airtran video is titled ‘Skip the Stampede’ and pokes fun at Southwest’s open seating policy. The ad begins in the Southwest boarding area with passengers looking like cows milling around and being herded into a plane by a Southwest employee with a Texas drawl.

Airtran 'Skip the Stampede' video

The cows race for the seats while an Airtran passenger on a nearby plane enjoys comfortable seating and watches the Southwest cattle ranch scene unfold outside. The ad ends with the message ‘Skip the Stampede.’ The Airtran video posted on their employee website was accompanied by this message:-

“We’ve heard from many Crew Members from around the country about a funny ad currently running on network TV. We’ve been asked again and again how we planned to respond. Well, we thought about it and thought about it and decided to not respond at all. After all, focusing on running the best low-cost carrier in America is enough to keep us busy.  “BUT…if we were to respond, it might look something like this:”

[Video here]

“Thanks to all of our volunteer Crew Members for donning these costumes and playing along. Your dedication to AirTran and your performance was truly MMMOOOOOOOving.”

Smart move by Airtran. Had they put out an official response, it wouldn’t have had the same impact. By keeping it internal and leaking it to the media, Airtran’s cows have managed to stampede on Southwest’s free bags message without having to take responsibility for it.

Will Southwest respond? Not likely, but if they do, it would surely mean more free publicity for Airtran. And probably a response video involving sheep.

Watch the Southwest ad here and the Airtran response video here.