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It’s mid-July and we have no discernible song of the summer. The HAIM album came and went, Justin Bieber’s SWAG is too low-key to blast, and Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend won’t be here till August. Despite the pop drought, there’s a singular song that has come to define this strange, hot summer and an exuberant TikTok audio that is neither song nor dialogue where a woman yells, “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday!” while Jess Glynne’s 2015 track “Hold My Hand” plays in the background. Despite the upbeat nature of the commercial, the whole thing carries with it the tenor of the Jaws theme. If you hear the combination of Glynne’s song and that nothing beats a Jet2 holiday, then you might just witness some degree of disaster or, at the very least, someone falling over. As the commercial turned meme turned summer anthem continues to take over the airwaves (and your “For You” page), here’s a quick primer on how nothing came to beat a Jet2 holiday.
What is a Jet2 holiday?
Jet2 is a budget airline in the United Kingdom, and holiday is what British people call vacation.
So this is a new ad campaign?
Actually, no. Jet2 launched this specific ad campaign — “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday” — all the way back in December 2022. In Jet2’s native U.K., the song and commercial have had a kind of internal notoriety the whole time with Jet2’s socials frequently joking about the catchy energy of the ad.
Are people using this to soundtrack fun videos from their vacations?
Uh, kind of. While Jet2 would like its customers to think of their advertisements as a sign that an awesome vacation to Malta is right around the corner, most people using the Jet2 advert jingle have gone for the exact opposite effect. Back in November, the ironic usage of the commercial audio started getting used in the background of trips gone wrong: camels running amok, a Final Destination–esque car ride, a big spider (do not click if even slightly arachnophobic). Using an upbeat song to soundtrack something objectively awful is not new in the world of meme-building — see the “This is fine” dog — but the Jet2 advert meme unveiled a unique horror associated with travel and time off and particularly with the risk of taking a budget airline.
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Does Jess Glynne know about all this?
She does! In a post celebrating the tenth anniversary of “Hold My Hand,” she shouted out the Jet2 commercial specifically. While her song reached No. 1 in the charts the year of its release, the Jet2 ad has yet to bring it back this time around. Although there’s still time …
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A post shared by Jess Glynne (@jessglynne)
End of story, right?
Well, the Jet2 commercial has had a second wind this summer, gaining some degree of notoriety for not just Glynne but Zoë Lister, the writer and voice actor who informs the listener that nothing beats a Jet2 holiday. She’s popped up at the Henley music festival and on radio shows to do Jet2’s signature catchphrase while explaining how strange and weird it’s all been on her side of things. “It’s really gone completely nuts,” she told the “Capital Breakfast” show. “I thought it just had British appeal, but then there’s Americans [who are] like, ‘Hey, I love your voice-over.’” Lister’s American accent is perhaps not her strongest voice-over work, but hey, neither is my British accent.
