Jetstar fills cabin with Shannon Noll look-alikes for 22nd birthday stunt

Jetstar has celebrated its 22nd birthday by filling a flight with Shannon Noll look-alikes, in the latest brand fame push from the low-cost airline and Thinkerbell.

The activation leaned into a neat piece of Australian pop culture trivia: Jetstar launched in 2004, the same year Shannon Noll became one of the country’s most recognisable reality TV figures after finishing runner-up on Australian Idol.

To mark the shared 22-year milestone, Jetstar and Thinkerbell created a Shannon Noll party flight to Townsville, with tickets priced at $22 and sold out within hours.

The birthday stunt began at Sydney Airport before passengers boarded a 2004-themed flight packed with Nollsie doubles, nostalgia and onboard giveaways, including thousands of dollars in Jetstar flight vouchers.

Passengers were also treated to an intimate acoustic performance from Noll at 30,000 feet, before a look-alike contest crowned passenger Grace Cheatley as the ultimate Noll.

The activation forms part of Jetstar’s ongoing push to drive brand fame by building talkable, low-cost moments around the fun of affordable travel.

Anna Craven, head earned thinker at Thinkerbell, said the campaign was designed to work as both an earned stunt and entertainment asset across Jetstar’s broader content ecosystem.

“We wanted this campaign to blur the lines between an earned stunt and a piece of entertainment that could seamlessly stretch across Jetstar’s content ecosystem, from its owned social feed, to creators, to news media,” Craven said. 

“From Today Show and Sunrise, to prime time news, it shows celebrating traditional brand milestones is still possible when injected with talkable creativity.

“Jetstar is all about bringing people together for fun, affordable experiences, and nothing says ‘fun’ quite like a cabin full of soul patches singing What About Me in mid-air.”

The work was created by Thinkerbell, with earned handled by Thinkerbell and Jetstar. Partners included Tourism and Events Queensland, Queensland Airport and Sydney Airport.