Air New Zealand
Middle Child Day
Making the most of the middle
Middle kids have many superpowers. Being invisible happens to be one of them
If you’ve ever looked at a content calendar, you’ll know that almost all of these ‘international days’ don’t mean anything to anyone.
Fresh Spinach Day? Insurance Nerd Day?
Those that do mean something are few and far between. Air New Zealand asked us to create a cultural calendar of events that their customers would actually care about. As an airline that supports the little guy, care—or manaaki—really matters to them.
One of those ‘days’ was Middle Child Day. (August 12th—mark your calendars).
While its existence is debated, if not outright dismissed, Middle Child Syndrome is something every middle kid has some experience with.
Sure, it’s not a real diagnosable condition, but that doesn’t mean that the feelings of middle-born children are any less valid for it. When you look into it, studies actually show that middle kids actually develop positive attributes because of their birth order. They’re more independent, better skilled at negotiating and compromise. It’s not all bad stuff.
But sitting in the middle seat on a plane often is.
To help middle-born children feel that Air New Zealand is the airline that cares about them, we put middle kids in that same seat to give them the attention they were denied growing up.
We created a confessional platform for real Kiwis to open up about their middle kid experiences, rewarding them for their (honestly) surprising honesty and celebrating all the positive things that make them unique.
We directed and filmed it, of course, and shared the social video across Air New Zealand’s Instagram and Facebook on Middle Child Day. Safe to say it’s the most positive attention middle kids everywhere have ever received.
To really make them feel seen, we also reskinned every middle seat headrest on domestic flights that day with a message declaring the armrests were reserved for the unlucky bastard sitting in the middle. They also got a special shout out from the hosties too.
Not a bad day’s work for a made up day.
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