The only thing worse than bad satire is an organization that doesn’t recognize satire and responds to a joke seriously.
That’s what happened with the JetBlue “Bigwigs” campaign, which drew a ridiculous or humorous or intellectual response from the Alliance for Aviation Across America. Tripso editorial director Chris Elliott and I are both laughing our heads off about it (to be polite).
Before we get to the substance (?) of its response, it’s worth noting that the Alliance is described by SourceWatch from the Center for Media and Democracy as “an Astroturf front group created by the LawMedia Group … to oppose changes in federal tax laws that they said would shift some of [the] airline carriers’ federal tax burden to small-jet operators.”
The LawMedia Group is, in turn, described as a “secretive Washington D.C. public affairs firm.”
In a news release touting a “print ad” responding to JetBlue, the Alliance says:
“JetBlue can’t serve business leaders and rural America when it doesn’t operate in most of America.
“JetBlue only serves 44 big city airports around the country mostly on the East and West coasts, and general aviation, by contrast, serves 5,000 communities around the country.
“JetBlue does not seem to realize that small and medium sized businesses that rely on general aviation every day are the backbone of America’s economy,” said Selena Shilad, spokesperson for the Alliance. “Until JetBlue decides to send its flights to places like Hot Springs, Arkansas and Gallup, New Mexico, general aviation will remain the lifeline to those communities and countless others all across America.”
One problem? The ad isn’t actually running anywhere except on the Alliance Web site.
C’mon, guys! Lighten up. If you weren’t amused by the JetBlue tongue-in-cheek campaign, the smartest thing to do would have been to ignore it. Publishing a “response” just gave us another excuse to tell Tripso users, “You gotta see those JetBlue ads!”
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
That JetBlue ad was hilarious. I pretended I was a CEO. Don’t tell anyone!
Hey, what a hoot! We should all lobby to have JB run these great spots everywhere. Thanks for bringing them into the light of day.
If this is astroturf, it is pretty lousy. “Secretive” my butt… Anybody with an IQ above 5 could figure out that the GA lobby is behind this “Grass Roots” group. Does anybody even pay attention to these things?
SirWired