Ad of the Day: Virgin Atlantic

As a child, could you catch fish with your bare hands while standing knee deep in the local river? Did you have uncanny, almost otherworldly powers of clairvoyance that let you glimpse the future—and even change it for the better? Could you make paper airplanes before you could crawl? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should stop what you're doing and go work at Virgin Atlantic. All sorts of outlandishly precocious children grow up to become Virgin Atlantic workers in RKCR/Y&R's stylish, fantastical, tongue-in-cheek launch spot for the carrier's new global campaign. Styled as a kind of faux movie trailer—cut into 30-, 60- and 90-second TV edits, as well as a cinema version and a two-minute online spot—the spot celebrates the airline's staff as literal superheroes. Their special gifts include rapid reflexes, preternatural intuition, creative problem solving and heightened empathy. Naturally, as adults, they rendezvous in Virgin's ranks as cabin crew, ground staff, designers and pilots. The tagline: "Virgin Atlantic. Flying in the face of ordinary." Launched with the new year, the campaign is unapologetically nostalgic and retro, but knowingly so. Air travel hasn't been glamorous in decades, yet Virgin brings back some of that attitude—along with the attendant fashion and sex appeal—but in a way that's exaggerated and borders on self-parody. Promising superhuman staff, in the end, is no promise at all. But in typical Virgin style, the carrier builds the whole campaign around such false claims, and expects you to quit worrying and just enjoy it. And it works—largely due to the skillful direction by Partizan's Antoine Bardou-Jacquet. The airline explicitly wants to "bring the glamour and fun back into long-haul travel," says Simon Lloyd, its director of marketing. Mark Roalfe, chairman and executive creative director at RKCR/Y&R, adds: "We wanted to bring to life that special spark that makes the people at Virgin different. I think the film really captures that, but with the tongue-in-cheek tone of voice that we've built with Virgin over the last 18 years." True glamour may be gone from air travel for good. But in the ads, if nothing else, you can still count on Virgin to make it fun. CREDITS Client: Virgin Atlantic Clients: Simon Lloyd, Breda Bubear, Hamish Rickman Agency: RKCR/Y&R, London Executive Creative Director: Mark Roalfe Creative Partners: Pip Bishop, Chris Hodgkiss Business Director: Vicky Jacobs Producer: Jody Allison Production Assistant: Flo Clive Music Producer: Dan Neale Production Company: Partizan Service Company: Stillking Director: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet Producer: David Stewart Directors of Photography: Andre Chemetoff, Damian Morisot Production Designer: Nick Ellis Editing House: Work Post Editor: Bill Smedley Postproduction: MPC Lead Visual Effects Supervisor: Rob Walker Lead 3-D Supervisor: Jim Radford Postproduction Producer: Julie Evans Sound Studio: Wave Studios Sound Engineer: Aaron Reynolds Composer: Guy Farley

Brand Marketing

Ad of the Day: Virgin Atlantic

Superhuman children find their calling in the airline's stylish new global campaign

Tim Nudd

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Tim Nudd