“United Breaks Guitars” is a song by Canadian musician and his band, . The song describes the real story of David's life when his guitar was broken during a trip by United Airlines in 2008, and the subsequent reaction of the airline. The song became the hit of YouTube and ITMS for several days, right after its release in July 2009.
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Content
Incident History
Musician David Carroll says his guitar was broken during baggage unloading. He, along with several other passengers on the same flight, witnessed a porter throwing a guitar onto a concrete pad at O'Hare Airport during a flight from Halifax (Nova Scotia) to Omaha . As a result of such careless handling, his $ 3,500 Taylor guitar ended up with a broken neck that he captured on video [1] . Fox News asked why Carroll handed over such valuable cargo in luggage, to which he replied that he was not allowed to take the guitar on board. In his song, he says that he "warned three airline employees in Chicago, but they showed complete indifference." Carroll filed a claim with the airline, but was denied compensation because it did not file a complaint within the 24-hour period set by airline rules. [2]
Song
Carroll says his fruitless negotiations with United Airlines lasted 9 months. After that, he wrote a song in which he tells his own story. The song says: "I’d better fly another airline or travel by car, because United breaks the guitars." The YouTube video was published on July 6, 2009. He collected 150,000 views in one day, prompting United to contact Carroll, saying that they now hope to correct this misunderstanding. The video gained up to half a million views by July 9 [3] , 5 million by mid-August 2009 [2] , 10 million by February 2011 and 15 million by August 2015. As of September 2018, the video has more than 18.2 million views.
Currently, Carroll has released three songs dedicated to this event. In the songs of David, employee of the company Miss Irlwig is especially mentioned. Despite the incident, the songs are humorous and contain no negativity.
Financial Effect
According to The Times [4] , 4 days after the video was published on Youtube, United Airlines lost 10% of its exchange value, which cost shareholders $ 180,000,000.
In fact, UAL shares, which began trading on the NYSE on July 6, 2009 at $ 3.31, fell to $ 3.17 by the start of trading on July 10, 2009. - 4.23% - But already on July 15, 2009 the shares exceeded the initial value of $ 3.34, and continued to grow to $ 6.56 on August 28, 2009 [5]
Notes
- ↑ YouTube - Singer's Sweet Revenge
- ↑ 1 2 Cosh, Colby . A man and his guitar , National Post , The Financial Post (August 21, 2009). Archived on March 5, 2012.
- ↑ Singer's revenge on United: A hit song United Press International July 9, 2009.
- ↑ Ayres, Chris . Revenge is best served cold - on YouTube: How a broken guitar became a smash hit , The Sunday Times (July 22, 2009). Date of treatment July 7, 2010.
- ↑ UAL Historical Prices | United Continental Holdings Stock - Yahoo Finance . Date of treatment January 25, 2017.
Links
- Video clip "United Breaks Guitars"
- United Breaks Guitars , David Carroll's blog about the incident (July 7, 2009).