The latest airline to offer extreme luxury seating is JetBlue, and they have christened their new sub-brand “Mint.” You know, mint as in pristine, mint as in the sharp, crisp flavor of toothpaste, mint as in what the housekeepers leave on your hotel pillow, mint as in what you need to own to afford the service…
Okay, I’m mostly kidding about the last one. Mint as a name is pretty good—it’s short, sleek, and sexy. And while it doesn’t fit exactly with JetBlue’s current naming architecture (they have traditionally used two-syllable compounds: JetBlue, TrueBlue, SoFly etc.), it’s okay—Mint nicely differentiates itself with a classier name.
But Houston, we have a problem. It’s not a lackluster tailwind or the unavailability of tomato juice—those would be manageable. It’s that the copywriting on their website has an incurable case of the puns.
The site reads, “JetBlue Mint: WE’VE MINTED A NEW WAY TO FLY” (their caps), and it gets worse. The biggest offender is the second sentence: “Mint delivers unexpected, individualized mo-mints that revive and engage, keeping you in mint condition during your travels.” And if that isn’t enough, JetBlue concludes their description of Mint with the groaner tagline: “Mint to be.”
Can you believe it? Mint is used THREE TIMES in one sentence. What were they thinking? Is this wordplay particularly clever? No, it’s cheap and contrived! Have they gone mint-al? Reading it tor-mints me! Right?!
You know, maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe I can forgive them for the silly copy because at least the copy isn’t boring, and JetBlue Mint does look really cool! Mint offers the ability to recline all the way, unlimited drinks, and 15” flatscreens for every person…so if I ever fly with them, maybe I’ll finally get to watch Me-mint-o! Or maybe Mint-o the Wild! Or maybe I’ll just look out the window at the firma-mint! Ahh…and, that’s enough.
Yes, they hit the whole mint wordplay thing on the head a little too hard. But at the end of the day, this is a name review, and the name is quite good.
Grade: A-
P.S. if you were wondering about how the page appears in JetBlue Español, the answer is yes, it’s just as minty.
“…Mint te brinda ‘mo-mintos’ imprevistos y personalizados…”
