The Simpsons' Mr. Burns takes over JetBlue

Annals of advertising, part 203: is this smart? Airlines will do almost anything to get their name and logo and brand out there in a favourable light, and hook-ups with well-liked products are nothing new. Still, one does raise the question of how well thought out some of these campaigns are. Take for instance a new campaign from JetBlue, still trying to regain public favour after its disastrous passenger strandings of last winter and a recent repeat fiasco in which the airline took about 24 hours to get people between New York and Fort Lauderdale. The airline has announced that it will be linking up with a new film based on the popular Simpsons television series about a dysfunctional family in a typical, mythical dysfunctional MidAmerican town. The paterfamilias, doughnut-loving Homer Simpson, works in a nuclear power plant run by the nasty, conniving C. Montgomery Burns, whose main goal is to make life miserable for someone every day. The airline, it seems, has decided to let the mythical, misanthropic Mr. Burns take the place of JetBlue founder and non-executive chairman David Neeleman. Though recently stripped of his chief executive title after the fiascos in Februrary and again in March, Neeleman still writes his blog for JetBlue, 'David Neeleman’s Flight Log'. Monty has taken over the blog "in my newest attempt to rob a man of his livelihood”. Burns goes on to denounce Neeleman and the airline, saying that they don’t make life miserable enough for passengers. Burns is outraged at the "congenial customer service and overly indulgent amenities" on JetBlue, and vows to make some big changes. We ask, is this the best thing for an airline that left thousands of people stuck on the runway for six, eight, or 10 hours? On the other hand, if it gets JetBlue to add doughnuts to its in-flight offerings...