I'm trying to get jQuery to set a cookie ui WordPress

Question

I'm trying to create a page which sets a cookie so I can exclude people from Google Analytics in a WordPress site

I'm trying to set this up using custom jQuery, but there is something wrong with the code I'm using

Here's the link code

<a id="hidemelink" href="#">Click to Set Cookie</a>`

and the jQuery code

jQuery('#hidemelink').click(function(){
    jQuery.cookie("HideMe", "HideMe", {
        expires : 400, 
        path    : '/'  
    };
    alert('HideMe cookie set');
    return false;
});

The problem is with the jQuery.cookie bit. If I remove

jQuery.cookie("HideMe", "HideMe", {
    expires : 400, 
    path    : '/'  
};

and just leave the alert & return statements, the code executes fine - the alert is displayed and I stay on the page.

However, when I put the cookie code in, the alery isn't displayed & I'm redirected to the home page.

This is probably something incredibly simple, but I just can't see it. Help would be much appreciated

Many thanks in advance