Perhaps the skies have felt particularly unfriendly since 1996. That might be because United Airlines retired its “Fly the Friendly Skies” tag line that year, and has since had a rough slide into passenger grumpiness — after all, it receives more passenger complaints than any other airlines. But that’s all going to change, United hopes, by resurrecting that old line.

It isn’t just a case of bringing back the old and shunning the new, however. As the Chicago Tribune reports, it’ll combine the old phrase with an updated “flyer-friendly” line as a way to summon up the “user-friendly” technological aspect of service everyone talk about these days.

United says the newly reborn campaign idea came from came from customer feedback and a desire to focus on technology improvements and product enhancements made over the last few years.

It’ll need to do all the customer wooing it can do, as its traffic has fallen in 11 out of the past 12 months.

Ads will begin rolling out this weekend starring actual United employees, and will include United’s theme song, “Rhapsody in Blue.” There’s some kind of animation that includes a route line turning into a smiley face, which as you know, means friendliness.

Also Matt Damon will be narrating things and you know how everyone loves them some Matt Damon, right? He’s Good Will Hunting! He’s best friends with Ben Affleck! But will that translate into customers choosing United? Who knows.

United goes back to ‘Friendly Skies’ ad campaign [Chicago Tribune]

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