Which CEO Oscar Munoz should be learning as he’s ushered out in 3, 2, 1…

Amidst the self-inflicted maelstrom of bad decisions, tin-eared PR, and blatantly prioritized self-interest, one other cold reality has been writ large by this incident for all corporate advertisers to witness. And it comes from Jimmy Kimmel.

Jimmy Kimmel, the comic and ABC late night host, did something that would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago. He called United out. Brutally. Mercilessly. And hilariously–click here.United Airlines was once a major broadcast advertiser. Their budgets funded enough network programming to earn them special consideration regarding television stories. If a news item made them look bad, they could influence the network into killing the story.

But clearly, those days are gone.

In today’s fragmented media market, advertisers can’t buy attention anymore. And it’s getting harder and harder to buy influence as well.  Wow.