Royal Jordanian’s Latest Ad Focuses On The French Presidential Election

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: May 7, 2017

15 comments

While it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, Royal Jordanian has been very successful with political ads. Usually you’d think that’s not something an airline would want to touch with a ten foot pole, but Royal Jordanian has reported great success with this strategy, and claims that bookings to the US were up 50% as a result of them.

For example, leading up to the US election last year, Royal Jordanian put out an ad encouraging people to travel to the US while they’re still allowed to.

RJ-1

They didn’t stop there. This February they published an ad with the tagline “Ban Voyage.”

RJ-2

Then a couple of weeks ago they published an ad about a different kind of fear of flying, in which a Donald Trump lookalike makes a cameo.

Are you afraid of flying? #FearOfFlying pic.twitter.com/NeWtnSlPUH

— Royal Jordanian (@RoyalJordanian) April 27, 2017

Now it seems that Royal Jordanian is trying politics in another region. With France’s presidential election underway, Royal Jordanian is chiming in on that.

The first ad is very subtle. The first time I quickly read through it (without thinking about the current election) I thought to myself “yeah, Amman to Paris is only 2,100 miles, that is pretty close.” But then it made sense to me.

Royal-Jordanian-France-1

They also published a follow-up ad about how the skies should be, with “liberty, equality, fraternity,” which is the motto of the French revolution.

Royal-Jordanian-France-2

Regardless of how you feel about the ads as such, I think there’s no denying that this is a bold campaign on Royal Jordanian’s part, and that they’re taking a different stance than others. Most airlines couldn’t get away with this, but I suspect that with Royal Jordanian it’s a bit less risky, given who they are in the context of the politicians they’re referring to. In other words, I suspect their upside with people who agree with their ideals is exponentially greater than the downside of someone boycotting them because they disagree with Royal Jordanian’s stance.

The irony is that the second ad is supposed to be a fare sale, and I can’t help but feel like those are actually not great prices. Amman to Paris is shorter than a US transcon, and the sale price is ~840USD. That ain’t cheap.

What do you make of Royal Jordanian’s take on the French election?

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Carrie Diamond

May 7, 2017, 11:23 pm

Nothing better than a cleverly subtle advertisement - I love that an airline is up for calling out discrimination and hate filled policies. These advertisements are topical, current and intelligent and promote Royal Jordanian as a 'thoughtful' carrier. Travel innately involves politics and it is folly to ignore this and folly to believe that any one country has a perfect Human Rights record.

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Lauren Guest

May 7, 2017, 9:15 pm

@Sheila E, that was terrible but omg I laughed out loud! Haha

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Sheila E Guest

May 7, 2017, 8:18 pm

"Not for everyone" — like Ford's rich, Republican dad probably. Someone knows where his bread is buttered!

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Dylan Guest

May 7, 2017, 8:05 pm

I was in Jordan last year for the first time and I thought it was great. The people, the food, the sights....all first class. But RJ has a brass pair making these political comments. Their commercial featuring the poor dude who feels so uncomfortable on board the plane is a glaring example of hypocrisy. Jordan's stance on human rights is well documented and it's not good. Better than most ME countries but it's all relative. Hypocrites.

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leungy18 Guest

May 7, 2017, 7:30 pm

It's actually not as cheeky or as bold as it seems. Most companies try to avoid political ads. But for some sectors where the target consumer is leans one way or the other, it makes sense. Ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft have a core base of urban folks -- who are a pretty liberal bunch Gun shops will probably attract a more conservative clientele. The same goes for airlines. International travelers overall are generally more wealthy and better educated than others in their country. The most frequent (high revenue) travelers are businesspeople. Politically, these white-collar globetrotters are far more likely to be free-market neoliberals than they are to be economic nationalists. They identify with the cognac-sipping bureaucrat in Brussels far more than they would with the steelworker in Ohio. Consequently, RJ's ads would probably just give them a few chuckles. If you take a look at the rate of passport ownership by each state in the U.S., there's a pretty stark difference between flyover country and coastal America. There are exceptions, of course -- but the rate of passport ownership by state tends to have a strong correlation with income, size of immigrant population, and human capital levels. It's probably logical to say that passport ownership is correlated with international travel. TL;DR: RJ's target market is probably a more worldly bunch who disdain populism.

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