Earlier today I wrote about Emirates’ newest 60 second ad, which stars Jennifer Aniston:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwYr4LAIUjk
This is a huge deal for Jennifer Aniston, as she’s being paid $5 million for her advertising contract with Emirates.
In the first ad, Aniston is seen in a bathrobe on another airline (presumably based in the US) asking where the shower and bar are located. When she finds out there isn’t one, she wakes up and realizes that it’s just a nightmare, and that she’s in fact on an Emirates A380. She relays the story to the flight attendant working the bar on the Emirates A380, and then asks if the plane could maybe fly for an hour longer, given what a good time she’s having (a feeling anyone who has flown Emirates first class can relate to).
Anyway, there’s another version of the ad which has also been released, which I thought was worth pointing out. I’ve always found it a bit ironic that several Middle Eastern carriers have bars, despite being in countries which (for the most part) prohibit alcohol. And they even use it as the source of marketing, as you can see in the above ad.
Qatar Airways A380 onboard bar
However, there’s an alcohol-free version of the Emirates ad. In it, Aniston replaces the word “bar” with “lounge,” and when she gets to the “lounge” she is served juice instead of a martini. Check it out here:
Too funny!
The irony of her promoting an airline while talking about her fear of flying on Jimmy Kimmel and talking about British Airways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZV-irARVTw
Hope she gets what she now deserves when she has to fly US airlines. The ad is patently misleading since no US airline flies the A380 (the only EK airplane with showers). When was the last time she flew an EK 777 and had a shower, since that's the plane she'd be flying on this supposed US airline. Only reinforces her image as a dumb blonde and total loser.
@Margaret Rose
They've aired commercials/tv shows/movies of women wearing less.
Definitely easy money for Jennifer. I read she and her closest friends flew private to Tahiti for her honeymoon last August... So I presume she mainly flies private (unless She flies to Dubai?) ;)
I've flown EK economy class over 25 times on the JFK-DXB route and when it is over 85% capacity, the experience can be a nightmare with broken IFEs, lack of food choices, and dirty bathrooms.
Either way, good for Jennifer!
@wwk5d my question pertains more to her wearing a bathrobe.I make no reference to the absence of facial garb.
What is this jennifer person?
@Jordan $5 million is a huge deal for Aniston if she's worth $250 million. That's a huge bump for doing nothing much. If you're worth 250K would you turn down a $5K job for a couple of hours of work? No, you'd be all over it. Same percentage increase in net worth...Besides if you have to make a whole movie to earn 10M but you can earn 5m in a day or two filming an...
@Jordan $5 million is a huge deal for Aniston if she's worth $250 million. That's a huge bump for doing nothing much. If you're worth 250K would you turn down a $5K job for a couple of hours of work? No, you'd be all over it. Same percentage increase in net worth...Besides if you have to make a whole movie to earn 10M but you can earn 5m in a day or two filming an ad... it's a no brainer where the real money is coming from. Sounds like the only reason to spend weeks or months on a film is advertising to get the real jobs in foreign advertising where you can pick up the same amount of money in a fraction of the time and effort.
I'm not advocating for turning this blog into a social statement, but I think it's pretty sad for Kidman and Aniston to be doing these commercials in the first place. The more we talk about Emirates and Qatar and Saudia, the more we support their mistreatment of their employees-bordering on abuse, and conduct which if occurred in the US would drive these companies out of business.
Not to mention, Ben, if any of them knew...
I'm not advocating for turning this blog into a social statement, but I think it's pretty sad for Kidman and Aniston to be doing these commercials in the first place. The more we talk about Emirates and Qatar and Saudia, the more we support their mistreatment of their employees-bordering on abuse, and conduct which if occurred in the US would drive these companies out of business.
Not to mention, Ben, if any of them knew you loved another male...well you know the rest. I'm just saying, we don't need to support this kind of garbage in this day and age. I don't care if they are the most pimped out flying experience ever. I will NEVER fly them-any of them.
"would they be using the image of a woman in a bathrobe on Saudi (or for that matter Qatari or Kuwaiti) television ?"
Because they air many foreign commercials that feature unveiled/hijab-free women.
"I’ve always found it a bit ironic that several Middle Eastern carriers have bars, despite being in countries which (for the most part) prohibit alcohol."
Um, what? The ME carriers that have bars and serve alcoholic drinks (Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar) all serve alcohol in their respective countries, and Emirates and Etihad are in the same country anyway. In fact, other than Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, anyone can get alcohol in the rest of the...
"I’ve always found it a bit ironic that several Middle Eastern carriers have bars, despite being in countries which (for the most part) prohibit alcohol."
Um, what? The ME carriers that have bars and serve alcoholic drinks (Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar) all serve alcohol in their respective countries, and Emirates and Etihad are in the same country anyway. In fact, other than Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, anyone can get alcohol in the rest of the GCC countries of Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the UAE (except for the emirate of Sharjah).
Assuming you literally meant an actual bar, as opposed to just serving alcohol. The interesting bit are Arab airlines like EgyptAir, which are dry airlines, even though you can buy alcohol in Egypt.
What is also interesting is that its ok to serve alcohol on these flights but not pork.
@Margaret, I didnt even think of that! Maybe there is another version with her wearing a veil?
The depiction of the US airline flight attendants is absolutely spot on - they remind me so much of the United ones flying Business Class - everything is too difficult for them, and their general behavior verges on the gross.
@Ben ,would they be using the image of a woman in a bathrobe on Saudi (or for that matter Qatari or Kuwaiti) television ?Totally off topic but it has just occurred to me that as women aren't even allowed to drive in Saudi,what happens when foreign national airlines fly into Riyadh with female pilots? I'm guessing they just don't .
I guess this version will be shown on local TV with an Arabic voice over. Whilst in countries such as UAE and Qatar where it is easy to get a drink, I assume the ad will be shown in dry countries such as Saudi and Kuwait as they will want their custom too.
I would guess that maybe it’s completely illegal to show any form of alcohol on TV in the region and this...
I guess this version will be shown on local TV with an Arabic voice over. Whilst in countries such as UAE and Qatar where it is easy to get a drink, I assume the ad will be shown in dry countries such as Saudi and Kuwait as they will want their custom too.
I would guess that maybe it’s completely illegal to show any form of alcohol on TV in the region and this was the only way their advert could get on air, even though I am sure all those watching knows what it is really like on board! I live in Qatar so I'll keep an eye out and see which version they use here!
What exactly is the point of the version of the ad without alcohol? It's not like they have flights where they don't serve alcohol and the bar is full of just fruit juice and Perrier. The only possible reason I can come up with is so they could play the ad on Middle Eastern TV stations that ban the depiction of alcohol. Is that even a thing though? Besides, all that would serve to do...
What exactly is the point of the version of the ad without alcohol? It's not like they have flights where they don't serve alcohol and the bar is full of just fruit juice and Perrier. The only possible reason I can come up with is so they could play the ad on Middle Eastern TV stations that ban the depiction of alcohol. Is that even a thing though? Besides, all that would serve to do is confuse/anger Muslims that get on a plane expecting It to be dry only to find it stocked with many bottles of some of the worlds finest alcohol. I'm puzzled.
I like how they even replaced all the whiskeys and cognacs behind the bartender and exchanged them with green bottles (perrier?). haha!
Yeah I have to agree with Jordan, this isn't a "huge deal" for Jennifer Aniston. She could literally do nothing for the rest of her life and be fine.
Of note, the non alcoholic version (with a juice as the featured drink) is currently hosted on the Emirates Website.
so who's His Excellency gonna sign?
Doesn't look alcohol free to me.
So this is not a huge deal for Anniston, since she is worth over $250 million. Still raking in around $15 mil PER YEAR from Friends (they all are) - 11 years later, and makes $10 mil per movie.
I would say its easy money for 1-2 days of work.
With that said, the ad is very good!