Air New Zealand Outdoes Itself With a New Betty White Safety Video

Skift Take

This has a hit written all over it, and shows how a small airline at the bottom of the earth can make a big difference with a quirky and creative sensibility.

— Rafat Ali, Skift

View on Skift.com

Betty White in an Air New Zealand Retirement safety video — Hollywood actress and Icon Betty White with Air NZ flight attendants Robert and Breone in a 2013 old school inflight safety video.

Second Wind Retirement Resort, in the new in-flight safety video by Air New Zealand.

Betty White & Gavin MacLeod, in the new in-flight safety video by Air New Zealand.

Bedroom Candlelight, in the new in-flight safety video by Air New Zealand.

Ballroom Party, in the new in-flight safety video by Air New Zealand.

Betty White, Robert & Breone, in the new in-flight safety video by Air New Zealand.

Air New Zealand’s famously quirky ad campaigns and in-flight videos are well known by now, and the latest one tops them all. The new 4 minute video features the red hot 91-year old veteran actress and comedienne Betty White, who seems to be at the peak of her popularity these days.

The 4-minute video features her in what Air New Zealand calls an “old school version” of the in-flight safety video, and by which it means acting it out inside a retirement home in Palm Springs, with funny skits breaking up the very unusual staging of the usual safety instructions.

From the company, some more details: “We set the video in a rather magnificent retirement village in Los Angeles. Betty leads a stellar cast that includes Gavin Macleod (Captain Stubing from The Love Boat) and Jimmy Wheldon (voice cast for the original Yogi Bear show). Gavin and Betty originally appeared together in the 70s programme The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Together with two Air New Zealand flight attendants, we had a ball fitting all the important safety messages around the antics of some very energetic and talented actors living it up in their ‘golden years’.”

To celebrate the launch of this new video, Air NZ is giving online users a chance to win the trip to either Palm Springs, California or Queenstown in New Zealand’s South Island, details here.

The video, embedded below: