JetBlue Creates 'FlyBabies' Promotion To Prove How Hard It Is To Fly With Kids

A new ad by JetBlue shows how we can all be a bit nicer to parents flying with kids

The only thing harder than flying with a baby is flying with a crying baby, but a new Mother’s Day ad by JetBlue Airways shows how other passengers could make parents’ lives easier with nothing more than a simple attitude adjustment.

The ad campaign, titled “FlyBabies,” features moms who are stressed out and anxious about an upcoming flight from New York to California. Each of them talks about how they’re scared their kids will have a “total meltdown” or they’ll be “one of those moms with the screaming baby.” They explain these fears to the camera as exasperated passengers look on, already annoyed that babies are going to exist on the same flight as them. Check it out:

Much to everyone’s surprise, a flight attendant takes the intercom after boarding and tells the passengers they’re about to change the game. On this flight, babies will be encouraged to cry because each time they do, everyone gets 25 percent off their next trip. That’s right: if four babies cry, everyone gets a free flight.

Suddenly, people are smiling when babies wail. They’re applauding. They’re not being miserable jerks who act like kids are tiny demons and parents shouldn’t have the right to leave their own homes. Imagine a world where we all realized how ridiculous it is to shame a baby for crying, the commercial seems to say. Imagine a world where parents aren’t alienated and hated because their kids are acting like kids.

No one dislikes a crying baby on a plane more than that baby’s own parents — trust me. But even we have to admit the contempt for parents traveling with kids has gotten a little out of hand. When parents are spending a hundred bucks on goody bags to suck up to their fellow passengers just so they don’t get told off by some annoyed hipster who thinks his plane ticket guarantees him a silent flight, things have definitely gone too far.

Yes, we all want a little peace, and no one wants to share a plane with a kid who screams for four hour straight, but what this commercial ultimately does is show that sometimes the difference between a bad experience and a good one comes down to our attitudes. If we could act like the village we are and be compassionate towards each other’s differing needs and situations, that’s a much more positive experience for everyone involved.

Now, if we could just get grumpy people on planes to realize all of this without having to bribe them with free flights.