JetBlue opens temporary ‘Flyer’s Collection’ store in NYC

Picture courtesy of Paolo Mello

9 December 2009 | JetBlue has opened a temporary holiday ‘pop-up store’ in New York City’s trendy Meatpacking District, as part of its new  tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign: ‘Flyer’s Collection’. Continuing the holiday 2009 trend of pop-up shops that don’t sell anything (see eBay and Wired), the storefront at 48 9th Avenue features physical samples of the ‘Flyer’s Collection’ products: gimmick items that JetBlue says travellers need to help cope with flying on other airlines. The products on display include ‘leather in a jar’ (to compensate for uncomfortable cloth seats on other carriers), a ‘knee-jockey apparatus’ (to make up for the lack of legroom), ‘depth goggles’ (to make the seat in front seem farther away), and the ‘Yumbro robot’ (to dispense free snacks). Other fun products are a ‘seatback siren’ (to alert those behind you when you plan to recline), a ‘luggage suit’ (to avoid paying baggage fees), and ‘Sounds of Jetblue’ cd’s.

The JetBlue pop-up store is basically a 3D version of the airline’s advertising campaign. You can’t actually go in the store, and it has got a small text down at the corner of the window, that says: “The products shown are fictional and not offered for sale.” Jetblue has also printed a six-page glossy fake holiday catalogue, and distributed 35,000 of them to mostly business travellers via a network of 2,300 New York town car transportation companies, which mostly go to and from the city’s airports. The catalogue is also accessible on JetBlue’s Facebook  page. When clicking on the ‘buy now’ button, the page displays a message saying it’s out of stock due to high demand and suggests the option of going to JetBlue.com instead to experience the real thing.

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