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A bit sketchy: Air New Zealand’s new animated safety video takes flight

Youtube Video

Just as Braniff airways shook up the fairly dull US airline sector in the ’60s by painting its planes bright colours and putting its hostesses in bright uniforms,
Air New Zealand changed the way everyone looked at inflight safety
videos by making them entertaining and, with its previous agency .99, it
basically created a whole new—and quite powerful—media channel. So far
we’ve seen painted bodies, All Blacks, lycra-clad, OTT aerobics
instructors and puerile puppets. And for the first time the airline has
decided to take an animated approach, with a new ’hand-drawn’ safety
video featuring the voice talent of Kiwi-born actress Melanie Lynskey
and Modern Family’s Ed O’Neill, as well as a range of “cameo appearances”. 

We’ve previously featured body-painted airline staff, All Blacks and
fitness guru Richard Simmons in our videos which have attracted more
than 20 million views online,” says Air New Zealand general manager
marketing and communications Mike Tod. “This time, we’re taking the
opportunity to highlight the global reach of our business and to
recognise world events and celebrities in a uniquely Air New Zealand
way. That’s why customers will see world leaders who feature in election
processes this year, Olympians competing to prove they are the best in
the world, our All Black Captain and A-listers who are big in their
markets today.”United States President Barack Obama, Australian
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and French President Francois Hollande
feature alongside other well-known (and drawn) faces like All Black
Captain Richie McCaw, Olympians Mahe Drysdale and Valerie Adams,
television star Paul Henry, rapper Snoop Dogg, The Queen, Count Dracula
and, if our eyes don’t deceive us, possibly even porn star John Holmes.

In recognition of the increasingly important Asian market, Kevin
Tsai, a high-profile Chinese television personality who was named one of
GQ China’s Men of the Year in 2011, and Chet Lam, a well-known musician and composer based in Hong Kong, also feature.

The
new safety video, which features the Naked and Famous track Punching in
a Dream and was created by its international agency Albion in the UK,
will be progressively rolled out onboard all international and domestic
jet flights from early July. And while there’s some impressive
craftsmanship on display in the animated clip, there is a slight whiff
of naff about it and we doubt it will be beating any of its previous
safety vids in terms of YouTube views.

The airline has also launched a competition where people who identify more than five of the celebrities in the video can be in to win an around-the-world trip for two.

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