In the business school I work at, this song is taken as an example in marketing class. There are 2 strategies for consumers who go complain online. First, a strategy to find a resolution and second, a strategy to have vengeance. I let you guess witch category "united breaks guitars" fall into. "resolution finders" rarely get satisfaction but "vengers" always do. Even without being heard by 10millions, you will always be happy once you bitch online at a company who disrespected you.
They evaluate that damage to United Brand and the lost of market capitalisation to over 150Million$. It's been 2 years since this video was put online and still today, almost daily, peoples use this youtube video comments to talk about their stories with united bagage claims.