The parent company for SkyMall filed for bankruptcy protection on January 23, 2015. SkyMall was the entertaining catalogue of everything you never thought about buying, but was in the seat pockets of every plane. As Farhi said, “the value added to this grotesque shlock was SkyMall’s enthusiastic descriptive copy. SkyMall’s writers never let on that they were essentially glossy carny barkers. No winks or nods, and no snark, ever. They played it all with a straight face — making, say, a Bigfoot garden ‘sculpture’ seem like a reasonable, even classy, every-home-should-have-one purchase.”

Questions
1. What does Farhi blame for the bankruptcy of SkyMall and what is wrong with SkyMall’s business model in the current environment?
2. What types of bankruptcy are there? Discuss.
3. What type of bankruptcy protection did SkyMall’s parent company file for and how much were its assets?
4. How long was SkyMall in business?
5. How much did SkyMall lose in 2013?
6. How much did a full page ad cost?

Source:
Farhi, P. (2015). Remembering SkyMall: the in-flight catalogue at the apex of commercialism. The Washington Post, January 23 (Retrievable online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/remembering-skymall-the-in-flight-catalogue-at-the-apex-of-commercialism/2015/01/23/e9960cea-a336-11e4-9f89-561284a573f8_story.html?tid=hpModule_1f58c93a-8a7a-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e&hpid=z13)

Ferdman, R.A. (2015). SkyMall, the wacky in-flight catalogue, is filing for bankruptcy. How did it last this long? The Washington Post, January 23 (Retrievable online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/23/skymall-the-wacky-in-flight-catalog-is-filing-for-bankruptcy-how-did-it-last-this-long/)