On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported: China shared the genetic sequence of the ‘novel coronavirus’ which will be of great importance for other countries to use in developing specific diagnostic kits.
Exactly a year later, India’s mission to fight the disease got a boost with the vaccine movement kicking off. India’s Civil Aviation Minister – Hardeep Singh Puri – tweeted photos of the first two airplanes operated by Spicejet and Go Air that took off from Pune to Delhi and Chennai, respectively.
Among the four pictures that Puri tweeted, one had an airplane in the background.
A Spicejet airplane.
A Spicejet airplane which belonged to Jet Airways before the airline went bust. And while Spicejet has added its branding to the machine, most of the airplanes it took over from Jet Airways’ fleet still have the branding of the bankrupt airline.
In the picture collage, which has been liked 1,400 times and 291 retweets at the time of writing this story, Spicejet’s logo doesn’t appear at all – it’s all Jet Airways until one clicks on the image to see the full image.
Civil aviation sector launches yet another momentous mission.
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) January 12, 2021
Vaccine movement starts.
First two flights operated by @flyspicejet & @goairlinesindia from Pune to Delhi & Chennai have taken off. pic.twitter.com/uo11S4OvqK
Spicejet’s marketing team would have surely known that these pictures would be shared extensively. While the aviation minister did mention the name of the airlines in the tweet, not all those who shared the pictures will be mentioning it. So, for all those who see it, and don’t open the full image, all the brownie points go to the defunct (at least for now) Jet Airways.
Full marks to Spicejet for kicking off the operation to get India vaccinated, but one would think this is a missed opportunity for the airline to get some great points in the earned media space!
(Raahil Chopra is managing editor, Campaign India.)
