With just under half the country disappointed with the results of the recent presidential election, social media is alight with Americans who do not support Donald Trump’s far-right rhetoric and policies saying that they’d like to move to Canada — most are written in jest but, as immigration numbers from when Donald Trump was first elected president in 2016 show, there is a small spike from those who follow through with applying for permanent residency.
“Does Canada need an older engineer, a brilliant chemical engineer and a dentist?” one Threads (META) user wrote in a post that was upvoted more than 1,200 times. “Just in case my sons and I need to move.”
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Airline confirms that ‘ad in question was digitally distributed’
Joining in on the hype, Canada’s second biggest airline WestJet published an online ad offering those who feel this way “one-way flights to Canada.” As an airline spokesperson explained later, the ad was not mean to take a stance on the result of the election but tap into the election stress of waiting for results.
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“We can confirm that the WestJet ad in question was digitally distributed in five cities across California in the lead-up to the U.S. presidential election,” the spokesperson said in a statement to media outlets. “The ad campaign expired across all digital platforms by 10 p.m. [November 5].”
The caption below the post also read “Stressful day. Could be a nice getaway.” along with the hashtag #WhereYourStoryTakesOff.
The intended humor was generally well received by those to whom the ad was tailored — and even those who questioned whether it went too far in taking a stance recognized the success of it as a marketing strategy.
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Some airlines like to use social media humor. It usually works.
“I actually love this,” wrote Stefan Kalczynski on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Great top of funnel move that’s going to get a bunch of shares and tags.”
WestJet is generally known for tapping into the use of humor for its social media strategy — on the airline’s Instagram, there are posts in which a flight attendant shows how to place a carry-on bag in the overhead compartment (with a small dig at those who do it wrong and take up too much space) and videos of flight crew doing everything from dancing to participating in a tug-of-war.
Humor (usually of the self- and passenger-deprecating variety) also helped Dublin-based low-cost carrier Ryanair (RYAOF) win over a new generation of travelers. Its social media posts include everything from riffing on the anticipation one feels when waiting for the beverage cart to slowly come down the aisle to responding to a passenger who complained about having to use the airplane ramp that a private jet would cost €136,000,000 instead of the €19.99 she paid for a ticket with Ryanair.
“We hired a group of kids under the age of 25 and sent them forth and said ‘Look, write whatever you want on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,'” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary once said in an interview with aviation website Skift.
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