Royal Jordanian - "Ban Voyage"

Royal Jordanian - "Ban Voyage"

Royal Jordanian Airlines has a track record of making light of Donald Trump's pronouncements about passengers from the Muslim world being banned from entering the USA.

Last year prior to election day the airline ran a series of ads with the strapline, “Just in case he wins...Travel to the US while you’re still allowed to.”

At the time the campaign generated close to 14,000 shares and likes on the airline’s Facebook page with more than 2.3K overwhelmingly positive comments.

RJ has now followed this up with a similar style ad, rushed out in response to US courts putting a block on Donald Trump’s ban on travellers from seven mainly Muslim countries.

“Fly to the US with RJ now that you’re allowed to,” the Royal Jordanian ad reads, along with a heading that changed the word “Ban” to “Bon Voyage!” The ad also shows that RJ has cut its fares to New York, Chicago and Detroit while the US court system deals with the ban.

Just as with its election day ads, this latest effort from Royal Jordanian generated worldwide media coverage, almost certainly introducing the airline to many people for the first time. “Jordanian airline pokes fun at Trump’s travel ban troubles” was the headline from CNN while the story from Britain’s Daily Telegraph was “Middle Eastern airline trolls Donald Trump.”

Royal Jordanian is not the first airline to run a campaign around Donald Trump, both Air New Zealand and Air Canada have previously used humour around the new US President. Air New Zealand’s “Election Hangover Cure” was a video showing social media comments from Americans saying they would be moving to New Zealand, interspersed with scenery from the country.

Meanwhile Air Canada invited Americans to “test drive” the country in response to a big rise in US queries about immigrating.

Mexican airline AeroMexico however took a different approach altogether, adopting a much more serious theme in its ‘Fronteras’ ad campaign. A politically charged spot, it directly took aim at (then candidate) Trump’s promise to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

Key Take-Away

Royal Jordanian showed the value of thinking fast and being opportunistic. The initial cost of this ad was almost zero - the cost of a designer to produce it, and for the social media team to push it out. Yet the return it got in terms of publicity was enormous.

Tackling political issues is always tricky as no brand wants to offend or alienate a large part of its passenger base.

However, as the Trump ban received almost universal condemnation outside the US, Royal Jordanian’s stance would not have been perceived as in any way out of step with what customers thought. The added element of humour will in turn have diffused any controversy as well as making the ad something people would want to share far and wide.