Airlines seem to be pushing the bar of video advertising higher and higher. Whether it be Air New Zealand’s star-studded and hilarious safety videos, or Etihad’s truly cinematic and visceral experience of their First Class product, The Residence, featuring Nicole Kidman (see both below), high production values and celebrity endorsements seem to be the way forward:

Air New Zealand’s epic The Hobbit safety video:

 

Etihad’s The Residence Promo:

 

It seems that Emirates have taken heed of this new trend and released their own commercial in this style. As with the previous instalment, it features Jennifer Aniston, playing the bemused American celebrity tourist, in awe of Emirates’ First Class Suite. If only she knew what Etihad had to offer, eh? 😉

Anyway, the ad follows her as she meets a very cute little friend, and they explore the plane together. The ad showcases all three cabins, and pulls on the heartstrings of anyone who dreamed of being a pilot as a child (yours truly!). It seems Emirates have taken a leaf out of both Etihad and Air New Zealand’s books; the advert itself is highly cinematic, but also magical and entertaining. Here it is in full:

 

The ad reminds me of another recent airline ad in which two kids discuss which Business Class is best – BA or AA. BoardingArea’s OneMileAtATime did an in-depth article on that very ad here. As seems to normally be the case with BA/AA on most fronts, their efforts, whilst meaning well, were very much second best to the market leaders, and the advert is no different.

Final thoughts

As you can see, the ad is a great ambassador for Emirates’ A380, which is proclaimed in the video as being ‘the best plane’. Clearly, Emirates want to highlight their flagship plane, because it is clearly the best configured of their fleet. By that logic, I really wonder why their 777 and A330 products lag so much behind their market-leading A380 products. Even when Emirates announced a refresh of their 777 seats, their Business Class remained in a 2-2-2 configuration, lagging significantly behind competitors such as Singapore Airlines, Qatar and Etihad. I’m concerned that passengers seeing this advert will be a bit underwhelmed if their route turned out not to be operated by an A380. Either way, as airlines continue to push the bar higher and higher, I think we can expect increasingly entertaining and extravagant commercials.

What are your thoughts on this ad? What do you think the future holds for airline commercials?