New JetBlue Contest Wants Instagram Users To Delete Their Pics For Free Flights

A new sweepstake sponsored by JetBlue Airways is taking a novelty approach when it comes to social media. In order to enter their contest, the company wants entrants to delete all of their Instagram photos in order to win a year's worth of free flights.

Called the “All You Can Jet” sweepstakes, the contest asks wannabe JetBlue fliers to delete their entire Instagram catalog and replace it with a singular post: a photo with a hashtag, using a template provided by the airline.

According to the contest rules, the only eligibility requirements to enter are that contestants must be a U.S. resident, have Instagrams that are set to "public," and "enter" the contest by March 8 — or, in other words, keep their Instagram profiles clear of any other photos besides their contest entry until that date.

While the contest rules might pose as a dire sacrifice to some social media users, the JetBlue eligibility requirements also mention that entrants can simply archive their old photos and repost them after the contest is over.

While the go-around might be a nice tip for Instagram users interested in entering to win one of three coveted places in the contest, there's one jarring lack of explanation in all of this: what is the reason for the promotion?

CNN noted that there's nothing in the rules that bar contestants from entering with an entirely brand new Instagram account, leaving their old ones intact. The only mention of making a new account is directed to those who don't have Instagram to begin with.

It's definitely a different tactic than most companies take, and it's all to win some free tickets that, in the end, aren't entirely free due to taxes and additional fees.

TechCrunch points out that the promotion is not entirely unique. JetBlue's contest bears a strong resemblance to a marketing stunt pulled by the team behind the now-infamous Fyre Festival disaster in 2017, in which a number of social media influencers promoted the event by posting a graphic of a burnt orange square on their feeds at the exact same time.