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Feb3
Fantastic Virgin Atlantic UK ad
Filed under: Entertainment, UK Stuff; Tagged as: 80s, british airways, madonna, miners strike, old mobile phone, uk, video arcade, virgin, virgin atlantic88 CommentsWhat can I say, this ad blows the competition away – which is is exact message and that it has been doing so for 25 years.
It uses a nice simple device:
Great looking ladies in high-contrast stand out red uniforms strolling down the mall with their “James Bond” hero styled pilot.
Heads turning everywhere.
Great backing track.
What helps make this ad great and delivers home its message that Virgin Atlantic is “still red hot” is its play on the nostalgia factor. It uses many devices popular in the UK in the 80s:
- The Miners’ Strike
- Asteroids video arcade machine
- Our Price (Later virgin rebranded “V Shop” in early 200s before vanishing.)
- Police wearing helmets and other dress styles and hairstyles from the 80s
- Madonna lookalike in “Desperately Seeking Susan” garb
- Wimpy (They still exist, but they are rare)
- “Brick” Mobile/Cell phones
- Music from “Relax” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood as the backing track
Watch out for the humorous “Who do they think they are?” moment from two ogling unglamourous stewardesses in boring gray uniform. (Now what airline could they be representing? lol)
Does the ad still work well outside of the UK where some of the UK-specific references wouldn’t be appreciated?
[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oL1uud6Fy6M[/youtube]
88 responses to “Fantastic Virgin Atlantic UK ad”
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[..YouTube..] ive never seen this! i wanna work for virgin atlantic! they travel to the best places in the world
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[..YouTube..] I love this advert-It’s so well put together and you can’t take your eyes off whats happening
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[..YouTube..] B.A is better love…better hotels, much much better pay and better destinations…and they are recruting now!!
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[..YouTube..] Better dirty tricks and better at paying massive fines because of it too!
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[..YouTube..] song anyone? i know its frankie goes to hollywood but what song???
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[..YouTube..] The song title you’re looking for is “Relax”
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[..YouTube..] I don’t see this advert anymore, I swear it was only shown about 5 times!
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[..YouTube..] love this advert so much, but it always reminds me of Pam Ann when she does “sarah” from Virgin Atlantic lol
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[..YouTube..] Helllllooooo mr.pilots ^^ soooooo handsome ^^ you look good too! :p I love the music
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[..YouTube..] Thanks for the post. This is definitely one of the sexiest ads and it’s great to be able to view it whenever you’re feeling a bit down. Red stilettos? Whoop-de-doop!
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[..YouTube..] Arr. I love this advert.
Yaay, I love the music that goes with it, It’s totally great.And Luckily my step-dad has this song I can’t belive that I hav’nt seen it on the TV for ages now.. 
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[..YouTube..] got to be my favourite ad of all time ……… perfect in every way and brightens my day!
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[..YouTube..] Yeah ok whatever! How could he make a call when the networks weren’t launched until the early 80′s then!? Unless it was a satellite phone in which case that’s 100% different.
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[..YouTube..] this is the only rival against the cadbury gorrilla for the best ad of all time
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[..YouTube..] because virgin was launched on 22nd june 1984 and i had a brick like phone then too
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[..YouTube..] I dont blame you all an airline needs to do is take you from A to B (and then maybe C)
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[..YouTube..] just out of curiosity, is that the VS launch uniform when they first started in 1984?
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[..YouTube..] Absolutely wonderful!Poo poo to all the humourless people who condemn it as sexist. This is a perfectly delightful, and deliberately OTT piece of visual and aural fluff, that not only packs in lots of late eighties detail, but ENTERTAINS..! Great end lines from the two blokes too.Its feel-good vibes for me (yes, a bloke) simply shine from the screen. Sure, our society is hung up on good looks (tough for everybody).But… this is a simply wonderful ad – and does a great job for Virgin.
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[..YouTube..] Absolutely deliriously wonderful!(I just watched it again)Utterly utterly…..I just want to watch those girls keep on walking – in hair-tossing gorgeous slo-mo…!The production team should get an award. And those adverse commenters should really get a sensayuma!They may have a point – but like it or not, looks, glamour and charisma dominate our society – and all the best right-on intentions will not crush the instincts that some of us are simply suckers for a pretty face!
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Oh I have to admit this Ad is one of the best around, not only does it get the message across but it is also an Ad that I never get bored of watching, of course it has great eye candy but it is very slickly put together.
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Jim from Altech October 8th, 2009 at 08:37
The 80′s nostalgia thing works all over the world. Not just in the UK
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Laura2008xx February 28th, 2009 at 15:57