Sky Mall is a specialty publishing firm headquartered in Phoenix

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

, Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

. SkyMall produces a quarterly in-flight publication, SkyMall, with an annual circulation of approximately 20 million copies distributed in airplane seat pockets. SkyMall is a multi-channel, direct marketer offering products through direct marketers and manufacturers through its SkyMall catalog and web site, skymall.com. The SkyMall catalog is seen by approximately 88% of all domestic air passengers in the United States, reaching more than 650 million air travelers annually. SkyMall also offers turn-key merchandise and fulfillment solutions for loyalty marketing programs.

Sky Mall is a joint venture of The Greenspun Corporation

The Greenspun Corporation

The Greenspun Corporation is a privately owned corporation that manages the Greenspun family assets. The company was founded by Hank Greenspun and is based in Henderson, Nevada.- Subsidiaries :* American Nevada Corporation- Land development...

 and Spire Capital.

History

SkyMall, Inc. was founded in 1990 by Bob Worsley, Alan Lobock, Matthew Del Bianco, and Graham Alcock. It originally offered goods from other companies' catalogs for same-day delivery to customers arriving at select U.S. airports or, if the customer preferred, to their home or office via express shipment. To accomplish the same-day delivery promise, SkyMall operated its own warehouses located on the grounds of or near the selected airports.

Shortly after launching, the company purchased contracts from another company that allowed it to offer catalog merchandise to travelers flying many of the nation's air carriers. This move, which did not receive the support of all of the founders, required a significant shift in SkyMall's focus and operations, ultimately forcing the company to abandon its same-day delivery service and nearly bankrupting the company. The company now offers goods from other companies' catalogs for drop-ship to the customer via third-party transport firms.

Popular culture

Sky Mall is often parodied for selling sometimes unusual products. For instance, comedy troupe Kasper Hauser released the book "SkyMaul: Happy Crap You Can Buy from a Plane" as an unauthorized parody of the Sky Mall catalogue. It features absurd products such as the Banana-ganizer, Self-Pepper Spray, Llamacycle, and Living-Room Beluga Aquarium. Reference in music and TV include
"SkyMall" by Jonathan Coulton

Jonathan Coulton

Jonathan Coulton is an American singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans...

 and the How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...

 episode The Goat. SkyMall has also been parodied in the Nickelodeon show Victorious

Victorious

Victorious is an American sitcom created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon. The series revolves around aspiring singer Tori Vega , a teenager who attends a performing arts high school called Hollywood Arts High School, after taking her older sister Trina's place in a showcase while getting into...

 and was mentioned in a 2010 episode of The Simpsons

The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

. In the third Blue Collar Comedy Tour film, One for the Road, Bill Engvall

Bill Engvall

William Ray "Bill" Engvall, Jr. is an American comedian and actor best known for his work as a stand-up comic and as a member of the Blue Collar Comedy group.-Early life:Bill Engvall was born in Galveston, Texas...

 jokes about the addictive nature the magazine has on him, comparing it to crack cocaine

Crack cocaine

Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...

. Sky Mall was referenced on Weeds

Weeds (TV series)

Weeds is an American television comedy created by Jenji Kohan and produced by Tilted Productions in association with Lionsgate Television. The central character is Nancy Botwin , a widowed mother of two boys who begins selling marijuana to support her family after her husband dies suddenly of a...

 (Season 6); however, the episodes cast the company in a negative light. It has also been parodied by Penny Arcade ( http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/9/26/ ). Sky Mall was also referenced on the Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...

 episodes Negro y Azul

Breaking Bad (season 2)

The second season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad premiered on March 8, 2009 and concluded on May 31, 2009. It consisted of 13 episodes, each running approximately 47 minutes in length. AMC broadcast the second season on Sundays at 10:00 pm in the United States...

, when a cartel member (Danny Trejo

Danny Trejo

Dan "Danny" Trejo is an American actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films, most notably in roles as an antagonist, or anti-hero.-Early life:...

) is demanding a list of items from the magazine in turn for helping out the DEA

Drug Enforcement Administration

The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...

, and Hermanos

Breaking Bad (season 4)

The fourth season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad premiered on July 17, 2011 and concluded on October 9, 2011. It consists of 13 episodes, each running approximately 47 minutes in length...

, when a DEA agent (Dean Norris

Dean Norris

Dean Joseph Norris is an American actor currently starring as DEA agent Hank Schrader, the brother-in-law of main character Walter White in the AMC series Breaking Bad, which premiered on January 20, 2008.-Biography:...

) unveils a GPS tracking device purchased from Sky Mall. Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) was seen reading a Sky Mall catalog on the plane in the movie "Get Smart." An article on cracked.com

Cracked.com

Cracked.com is a humor website that was spun off the last attempt to revive Cracked magazine. It began in its current form in 2007.-Attempted relaunch of Cracked:...

, written by an official columnist, lists "The 7 Most Useless Skymall Products", which lists 7 comically, seemingly pointless, products previously sold through Skymall. Mitzi from Shin Chan has also referenced Sky Mall in the show several times, (claiming she's read and owns every Sky Mall magazine from 1987 and onward), in the episodes, "Hima Nohara in "The Creeping Terror" and in the episode, "The Girls of 34C".

In a Season 3 Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation is an American comedy television series on NBC that focuses on Leslie Knope , a mid-level bureaucrat in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, the series debuted on April 9, 2009; it has run for three seasons and...

 episode, "Camping"

Camping (Parks and Recreation)

"Camping" is the eighth episode of the third season of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation, and the 38th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on March 24, 2011...

, Tom Haverford

Tom Haverford

Thomas Montgomery "Tom" Haverford , born Darwish Sabir Ismael Gani, is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. He is a sarcastic, underachieving government official for the city of Pawnee who is revered for his high levels of swagger and unmatched entrepreneurial skills...

 brings a large array of gadgets and appliances with him on a camping trip that he claims to have purchased from Sky Mall.

External links

• Sky Mall website
• "'Where the Wings Have No Shame': What's Skymall culture really about?", Slate.com, April 18, 2007
• "SkyMall and GuestLogix to develop onboard shopping service", DFNIonline, February 21, 2008
• "Coffee, Tea, Lawn Ghoul?" by Sarah Kershaw, April 29, 2009, New York Times