The more Mexican you are, the bigger your airline discount

Mexico’s national airline, AeroMexico, has announced a discount that requires potential passengers from the United States to take a DNA test. The test will determine the percentage of Mexican DNA and based on that they will get a discount on their flight to Mexico. If you’re 25% Mexican, you get a 25% discount; if you’re 7% Mexican, you get a 7% discount.

Does this mean if you’re 100% Mexican you fly free?

The tagline of the AeroMexico airline’s new “DNA Discounts” campaign is “Inner discounts – there are no borders within us.” The ad is an attempt to boost tourism and talks about how America is a choice for Mexican people to travel but it is vice versa for people living in America.

In the ad, a group of Texans are being interviewed in Wharton, about 300 miles north of the US-Mexico border. They are telling how they don’t want to travel to Mexico. The interviewer with one man goes like this:

“Do you like Tequila?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like burritos?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you like Mexico?”

“No.”

But what happened when they discovered via DNA testing that they are part Mexican and can enjoy significant discounts?

“Oh, wow,” says one young man who is told he’s 18 percent Mexican.

“That’s bullshit!” says an irritated elderly man when informed that he is 22 percent Mexican, however, after discovering this he asks, “So what if I want to take my wife?”

The ad, published by AeroMexico’s ad agency Ogilvy on Twitter, has gone viral on social media, however, it is receiving a mixed response.

“Not really sure if this is more an ad to get bigoted Americans to go to Mexico or a warning to Mexicans that they really won’t like the people in America,” wrote one user in response to the ad on Twitter.

“So if a guy from Mexica flew to America, he could get a free ride back to Mexico?” asked a user on twitter.

The ad comes at a time when President Donald Trump has called a partial government shutdown over his demand to fund a wall at the US-Mexico border. Timely?  Coincidental?  One thing is for sure – the promotion is certainly getting a lot of attention for the airline.