• by Tanya Gazdik , August 22, 2017

Marketers are milking the solar eclipse for all it's worth with tie-ins continuing Monday. 

Land Rover and photographer Alex Strohl captured one-of-a-kind photography of the eclipse in the all-new Land Rover Discovery. Strohl gained a unique vantage point as his shooting location was only reachable via the off-road capability of the Land Rover Discovery, according to the automaker.

Strohl departed from Salt Lake City, and took a three-day road trip in the new Discovery to Railroad Ridge (an off-road-only trail) in the heart of the Sawtooth National Forest to escape the crowds and located the best vantage point for the eclipse. Railroad Ridge rises from nearly 6,000 to 10,000 feet in elevation, offering some of the most picturesque, yet difficult to reach, vistas in the United States. Not only is the location remote and beautiful, but it was also directly on the path of totality.

JetBlue hosted the No Blackout Non-Eclipse Non-Event Facebook Live event. As it turns out, there were a lot of non-believers — over 35,000 people RSVP’d to the “non-event.” The airline enlisted actor Skylar Astin to prove that blackouts (when travel rewards, discounts, and promotions are unavailable) don’t exist at the airline — not on the day of an eclipse, not ever, according to the company. 

Astin answered questions about the eclipse (or non-eclipse) as well as what he’s looking forward to seeing (or not seeing) — all while putting on some hilarious comic skits. As Americans from coast to coast awaited the coming total eclipse, it was meant to be a fun alternative place to watch (or not watch) the solar spectacle. 

“At JetBlue, we don’t believe in blackout dates,” said Elizabeth Windram, director, JetBlue, in a release. “Which got us thinking: If Monday’s eclipse is the biggest blackout date in recent history, then we don’t believe in it either.”

Another travel company to jump on the eclipse bandwagon was Hotwire, which simply held a one-day $15 sale for hotel rooms and rental cars. Facebook Messenger offered a special one-day mask which superimposed eclipse images over pictures and videos. 

Jack in the Box via agency David&Goliath launched a promotion claiming it was trying to raise money to place a giant 2,000-mile-high and 1,000-foot-wide Jack in The Box hat on the moon during the eclipse. 

The company said it was trying to raise $66 trillion for the endeavor and created a landing page and a 75-second video to promote it.  Instead of going toward a hat, the money raised actually will be donated to No Kid Hungry.