Allegedly, in the days when you could book an easySeat on the good old dog and bone, there was a large red 'calls in queue' indicator on the wall in the telesales centre, showing how many potential purchasers were waiting. This normally hovered around the 6 or 7 mark. Immediately 'Airline' finished screening, this shot up into the hundreds!
Apparently any publicity (especially free publicity) is good publicity!