Flying high on its recent decision to \u201cban\u201d Crocs from the feet of passengers, Tampa International Airport in Florida is now aiming to get rid of pajamas in its concourses and jetways as well.<\/p>\n
In a social media post that has gathered attention worldwide<\/a>, the airport posted: \u201cWe\u2019ve seen enough. We\u2019ve had enough. It\u2019s time to ban pajamas at Tampa International Airport.\u201d<\/p>\n It goes on to say: \u201cWe know this decision could be disruptive to someone in your life. It\u2019s time to have a difficult conversation with them.\u201d It concludes: \u201cHelp Tampa International Airport become the world\u2019s first Crocs-free AND pajama-free airport.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCrocs-free\u201d is a reference to a post the airport made last July, when the U.S. Transportation Security Administration announced an end to its policy of making passengers remove their shoes during security screening.<\/p>\n Tampa airport repeated the news but added its own twist: \u201c*unless you\u2019re wearing Crocs \u2026 you should take those off and throw them away.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither of the posts, though they were meant as jokes, was universally well-received. The pajama post had some wondering if the message came from a joke account or was perhaps an actual rule, leading to queries about how it could be enforced.<\/p>\n One angry user posted to X: \u201cGoing to the airport today putting on the most pajama outfit I have today JUST because of this post.\u201d To which the Tampa account responded with a meme of Marcia from The Brady Bunch saying: \u201cSure, Jan.\u201d<\/p>\n All these postings bear the hallmark of C.J. Johnson, Tampa airport\u2019s head of social media.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to give people a lot of sweets, so when you need to feed them a vegetable they\u2019ll listen,\u201d he told an audience<\/a> at University of South Florida\u2019s\u00a0School of Marketing and Innovation Practice Center\u2019s\u00a0Workshop Series.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I got on everyday at Tampa International Airport and tweeted we have flights today, who would care? No one,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we do funny silly stuff like this with targeted messages that grow your audience and then I say, \u2018Hey guys, by the way, we are closing the airport due to a hurricane,\u2019 then people lean in and listen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Johnson once ran a campaign to name the six-storey-tall flamingo that looms over travellers in the main terminal. (It\u2019s now named Phoebe.)<\/p>\n Not long after that he had Tampa International \u201cgive up\u201d its name for a few hours online, branded simply as \u201cBig Flamingo Home.\u201d<\/p>\n And last Fourth of July he posted that the airport\u2019s annual fireworks display had been cancelled, before adding: \u201c(Actually, we don\u2019t have an annual fireworks display because we\u2019re literally an airport and that would be nuts.) Thanks for reading. Come see us soon.\u201d<\/p>\n But it turns out Tampa wasn\u2019t even the first to address Crocs and PJs. An article in People magazine<\/a> from October 2024 notes that several school boards have banned Crocs among students for safety reasons.<\/p>\n They included LaBelle Middle School in LaBelle, Florida, just south of Tampa, whose dress code<\/a> states: \u201cSafe footwear shall be worn at all times. No open toe shoes, bedroom slippers or shower shoes. All shoes must have a strap or back\u00a0 at the heel. (Proper lace up athletic shoes must be worn during P.E.) NO CROCS allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n And last November, during a\u00a0press conference<\/a> at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pleaded for more civility among passengers during the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend, and asked that passengers avoid dressing in \u201cslippers and pajamas\u201d for their flights.<\/p>\n Older travellers and those who have seen old movies will recall a time when people dressed up rather than down to take to the skies. Perhaps Tampa will soon suggest a return to hats and ties. Or spats.<\/p>\n Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flying high on its recent decision to \u201cban\u201d Crocs from the feet of passengers, Tampa International Airport in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[81092,135,137,3210,136],"class_list":["post-171858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-crocs","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-international-airport","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}