Collaborate
The Aluminum Lady exists to say plainly what air travel does to the people who work in it and the people who fly it. The satire is the delivery system; the mission underneath it is sincere. We partner with organizations that share it.
Today, the Aluminum Lady anchors As The Carousel Turns, an IMDb-listed series, and her videos have drawn over a million views in the past 90 days alone. Her audience is airline crews and the travelers who love them, an audience she earned the hard way. In 2012, American Airlines fired her creator, Gailen David, after 24 years and sued him over the parody. TIME, NBC, and Texas Monthly covered it. The character survived the lawsuit, is now a trademark with federal registration pending, and has never had more reach than she does right now. Jetiquette, a Magellan Award-winning travel civility brand, rounds out the portfolio. The full press history is at /press.
Who this page is for
Advocacy groups, law firms, unions, and nonprofits working for airline crews and passengers will feel at home here. So will companies. If your organization treats its employees and customers right, and proves it in how it operates and how it lobbies, not just in what it says, we want to hear from you. The test is the same for everyone: does your work serve working people?
What a collaboration can look like
Aluminum Lady content created with your organization’s presence, clearly disclosed, in her voice, for her audience.
A sincere expert (Gailen David, 24 years inside the industry) or the character herself, in character, for campaigns, events, and media.
Co-created advocacy content on the issues that matter to working crews and the people they fly: fair pay for all hours worked, safe staffing, how crews are treated, better consumer protections, and management accountability.
How we choose partners
We advocate for workers and passengers, and we say yes, selectively, to organizations that put people first. Aluminum Lady is a parody of the executives who treat people as props, and the mission behind her is to help people recognize how the system works and why pushing back matters. Pushing back is only half of it; the other half is standing with the organizations doing it right. That only holds if the content stays on the side of workers and passengers. So we decline collaborations that would require punching down at either group, undisclosed promotion, or anything that leaves the audience unsure which side the content is on. We will take on political content when it aligns with our mission, but our work is built on facts, not misleading information. If a partnership wouldn’t survive being explained plainly to a flight attendant, we don’t do it.
Editorial independence
Three commitments protect every partnership, including yours:
- 1Final creative control stays with the Aluminum Lady.
- 2Sponsored content is always labeled as sponsored.
- 3The satire targets institutions, never workers or passengers.
These rules are why the endorsement means something. An audience that knows she can’t be bought is the audience you want vouching for you.
“HDQ welcomes proposals from qualified organizations. All submissions are logged, stamped, routed for review, and eventually located. Sincerity will be noted in your file.”
Start the conversation
Tell us who you are and what you have in mind. We respond to every serious inquiry.
Prefer email? collab@aluminumlady.com