The White House wants you to use Lyft.
The “It’s On Us” campaign, announced back in September, is a White House-led initiative that aims to eliminate sexual assault. On Friday, the campaign sent a spring break-related email with tips to stay safe during vacation.
Reason.com has the details of the email itself, which recommends three tools to consider using during the break, one of which was to “download Lyft.” Included was a promo code for new users to receive a free ride.
Lyft announced a partnership with the “It’s On Us” campaign last month as part of its mission to “make every ride a welcoming and safe experience.”
As Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes, it’s worth noting that the White House is encouraging people to use Lyft over competing ride-hailing apps or other forms of transportation in general.
“It seems at least a little uncouth, if not downright shady, for the federal government to market a private company under the guise of raising public consciousness,” Brown notes.
Lyft’s blog post from last month announcing the partnership with the White House had a few additional data points. Lyft, which just raised a $530 million Series E round, said that a majority of its passengers and more than 30 percent of its drivers are women, which is “two times that of our nearest competitor and 30 times more than the for-hire transportation market.”
Assuming the “nearest competitor” is Uber, this data is interesting — particularly as Uber last week was vocal about a new initiative to create one million jobs for women by 2020.
Uber also has its own connections to the White House and Washington D.C., most notably with its June 2014 hiring of David Plouffe, best known for helping to get Barack Obama elected in 2008. Last month, Politico published a fantastic story titled “The Obamization of Uber” that examined how Plouffe has affected Uber since joining the fast-growing company nine months ago.
Along with the White House partnership, Lyft also announced that it is working with other organizations like Hollaback, Stop Street Harassment, and Collective Action for Safe Spaces.
