JetBlue Flies with RuPaul’s Drag Race for Pride Month Promotion

June is Pride Month. JetBlue is celebrating the month by partnering with VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race.

This year’s Pride Month marks the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, an iconic moment for gay rights and New York City. JetBlue is a New York-based airline. It celebrated Pride Month by creating an Airbus inspired by Rupaul’s Drag Race and RuPaul’s “shantay, you stay” tag.

To further market the effort, the brand produced a video starring Bob the Drag Queen and Trixie Mattel that promoted JetBlue’s Shantay Blue Stay Airbus—highlighting its legroom and free snacks. It aired on VH1 and JetBlue media. On the ground level, JetBlue took over its T5 terminal at JFK to promote the pride plane. The takeover featured RuPaul quotes, photos, exhibits, Instagram opportunities, a makeover station and postcard area to write pride messages.

JetBlue is not the only brand celebrating Pride Month. It’s an emerging trend according to market research, which show brands view the LGBTQ community as an untapped opening. The campaign aims to fix that by engaging consumers with an optimistic approach rather than heavy-handed cause-related marketing, which puts off consumers. However, according to Marketing Dive, many see pride-themed content as a tactic, rather than evidence of a brand’s values. This campaign could (unintentionally) be a barometer of the survey’s results.