Inspiration brought to you by the TM Planning Department

Transparency has been a hot word for a few years now, with the power of social networking escalating it to heights never expected a decade ago.  So when a fed-up flight attendant, Steven Slater, ruffled JetBlue’s corporate feathers by fleeing the airplane – and his job – by emergency chute (c’mon, you know you want to try it), it wasn’t just a discussion behind-closed-doors between Mr. Slater and his manager.   Just ask his newest entourage of 183,000+ supportive facebook fans.

A NY Times article focuses not on Steven Slater, but the uncharacteristic response time of JetBlue towards the incident.  Once posted 48 hours later, the response not only appears true to the brand personality, but statistically JetBlue is quickly climbing to a social media rebound, with almost the same percentage of positive remarks (70%) than prior to the Slater Chute Escape (79%). While I’m not supporting a 2-day turnaround time, perhaps a well-thought out branded response — vs. the legal mumbo jumbo we typically see — may pay off in the long run?

[Aside: people are complicated and forgiving.  Just check out the number of JetBlue defenders on JetBlue’s response.  But, what’s that? They also want Slater “freed?”  They don’t have to choose?  Yes, my friends,  they can have their cake and eat it too.]