It’s stories like this one out of Los Angeles that demonstrate the vitality and ingenuity of private businesses and marketers. This weekend in Los Angeles, a 10-mile stretch of the 405 freeway will be shut down for maintenance. The closure will have such a huge impact that it’s been dubbed “carmageddon.” This is the equivalent of closing 10 miles of I-40, I-85, and Highway 70. It’s huge. Celebrities are even tweeting about it.
Kudos to the LA Times for providing great coverage and great marketing for the paper. Check out this LA Times page that includes a “countdown clock” leading up to the shutdown and the slew of stories.
But my “carmageddon” Emmy for private-sector brilliance goes to Jet Blue. This Atlantic blog tells the story:
JetBlue: the official airline of the Los Angeles car-pocalypse. It’s not a slogan that will catch fire in corporate headquarters, but a $4 ticket gambit that the airline made to increasingly desperate Angelenos facing a ten-mile freeway shutdown this weekend–“Carmaggedon“–appears to have paid off. “In less than four hours, JetBlue Airways sold out all four special ‘Carmageddon’ flights between Burbank and Long Beach on Saturday,” reported The Los Angeles Times.
