Most companies tend to steer as far away from politics as possible at risk of alienating customers (Chik-Fil-A’s VP of Public Relations could probably tell you a thing or two about the subject if he were still alive).
Somehow, though, JetBlue’s marketing team has managed to pull off the difficult task of creating a contest based on the presidential election that doesn’t actually touch any delicate political topics.
Playing off the increasingly popular adage, “if [insert candidate here] wins, I’m moving to Canada,” JetBlue’s “Election Protection” program will help over 1,000 people do just that.
While JetBlue might not fly to Canada, the airline does serve 21 destinations in a dozen countries in the Caribbean and Bermuda. Anyone can register on the airline’s Election Protection website and vote for the candidate they want to win and the country they want to flee to.
The stroke of genius that keeps it light-hearted is that no candidates are named, and not even parties: Choices are narrowed down to a donkey logo versus an elephant logo.
The day after Election Day, JetBlue will select 1,006 random donkey voters (2,012 round trips) if Mitt Romney wins, or 1,006 elephant voters if President Obama is re-elected.
With over 34 days to go before the election, according to the website’s realtime stats, the donkeys are leading the elephants 56% to 44%. Also shown are the preferred countries to emigrate to: Costa Rica is tops, followed by Turks & Caicos, St. Maarten, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas.
JetBlue will also be driving around New York City in October “armed with iPads, campaign swag and local New York City voting information … to encourage New Yorkers to get out to vote in the election on November 6 and to sign-up for JetBlue’s Election Protection.”
