It is the internet meme of the summer, sparking laughter and thousands of wry smiles at the pitfalls of a British summer holiday.
But the journey of the viral Jet2 holiday advert – with its promotional voiceover played out over cheerless summer holiday footage, including water-slide disasters and images of pouring rain – took a darker turn this week when it was used by the White House in a post on X to promote Ice (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) deportations.
Jess Glynne – whose 2015 single Hold My Hand accompanies the advert – responded to the post on Wednesday, saying she felt “sick” that her music was being used to spread “division and hate”.
On Thursday afternoon Jet2 also condemned the post, saying it was “disappointed to see our brand being used to promote government policy such as this”.
The official White House account posted a clip on X on Wednesday evening showing people wearing handcuffs and being taken out of cars and on to planes, captioned: “When Ice books you a one-way Jet2 holiday to deportation. Nothing beats it!”
In the six months since Donald Trump took office, the US president has supercharged the country’s immigration enforcement, overseeing a sweeping mass arrest and incarceration scheme, which resulted in a record number of arrests by immigration officers in June, according to Guardian analysis.
The post delighted Trump supporters but was decried as disgusting, embarrassing and unchristian by critics. Glynne, who has previously joined in with the fun spirit of the Jet2 holidays meme by posting a TikTok video miming the voiceoverexpressed her disapproval of the White House’s appropriation of the trend on Instagram.
“This post honestly makes me sick,” she wrote. “My music is about love, unity and spreading positivity – never about division or hate.”
Jet2 had previously appeared to welcome the extra publicity generated by the meme, launching a challenge that offered a £1,000 holiday voucher as a prize.
A spokesperson said the company welcomed the “good humour” of the viral phenomenon, but not the White House’s contribution. “We are of course aware of a post from the White House social media account,” they said. “This is not endorsed by us in any way, and we are very disappointed to see our brand being used to promote government policy such as this.”
The advert’s voiceover actor, Zoë Lister, said she would never condone her voiceover “being used in promotion with Trump and his abhorrent policies”.
She told the BBC: “The Jet2 meme has spread a lot of joy and humour around the world, but the White House video shows that Trump has neither.”
The White House Ice deportation post is the latest example of an unorthodox digital communications strategy that has veered away from previous administrations’ traditional – and relatively sedate – use of social media platforms.
In February, the White House used X to promote Trump’s congestion pricing policy, posting a fake Time magazine front cover portraying the president as a monarch, along with the phrase: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”
The post was described as “revoltingly un-American” by Adam Keiper, the executive editor of the conservative Bulwark news site, while New York state’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, said: “New York hasn’t laboured under a king in over 250 years and we sure as hell are not going to start now.”
The administration also faced criticism after Trump shared an AI-generated video that showed him in a transformed, glittering Gaza, topless and sipping a cocktail with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. After criticism, the administration recently posted on X: “Nowhere in the constitution does it say we can’t post banger memes.”
Last month the Trump administration appeared to be on track to oversee one of the deadliest years for immigrant detention after the deaths of two men – one from Cuba and another from Canada – while in federal custody.
Human rights experts have raised concerns about the detention of children with their parents at the newly recommissioned “family detention centers” in Texas, and while Trump has repeatedly claimed his administration is trying to arrest and deport “dangerous criminals”, analysis shows that most of the people Ice is now arresting have never been convicted of a crime.
