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Air New Zealand Takes Safety Briefings to Hollywood in 2016
"Safety in Hollywood" is Air New Zealand's July 2016 in-flight safety video, created by New Zealand agency True, that casts comedian Rhys Darby and actress Anna Faris in a series of Hollywood film-genre parodies filmed at Warner Bros. Studio in Los Angeles to deliver standard pre-flight safety instructions in an entertainment format designed to hold passenger attention.
Air New Zealand published the campaign in New Zealand in July 2016 as a digital medium asset, placing it squarely within the airline's long-running strategy of treating the mandatory safety briefing as a piece of original content rather than a regulatory obligation. The film was produced over two days across four sets at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles, giving it production values that read as genuine genre cinema rather than aviation communications. As reported by the Daily Express in July 2016, the video spoofs a police procedural, a horror film, and a French art-house production, with Darby and Faris anchoring each vignette as recognisable comedic presences. The #SafetyinHollywood hashtag supported the campaign's digital distribution, inviting audience engagement beyond the passive viewing context of a cabin screen. Within New Zealand's competitive aviation market — where Air New Zealand operates as the national carrier against international rivals including Qantas and Virgin Australia — the airline's creative output functions as a brand differentiator as much as a compliance tool. This particular production extends a lineage of Hollywood and entertainment-adjacent safety content that had already accumulated substantial online audiences, and it carries a Clapboard Score of 79/100, reflecting strong creative ambition and production craft relative to verified audience impact.
Air New Zealand built its entertainment-led safety video model on a clear consumer insight. Passengers routinely ignore pre-flight safety briefings, treating them as background noise after their first flight, which creates both a regulatory compliance problem and a missed brand-impression opportunity. By transforming the briefing into content people actively seek out and share, the airline converts a mandatory touchpoint into earned media. The strategy predates "Safety in Hollywood" by nearly a decade: as noted by stoppress.co.nz, the "Nothing to Hide" video in 2009 established the entertainment-led safety format, and subsequent productions featuring Sir Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis in 2012, and a Middle-earth tie-in in 2013 linked to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, built the template that the Hollywood production inherits.
In New Zealand, Air New Zealand operates as the dominant domestic carrier and primary long-haul flag carrier, competing internationally against Qantas — which has pursued its own content-driven brand marketing — and against Virgin Australia on trans-Tasman routes. Global passenger traffic grew 6.3 percent year-over-year in 2016, according to IATA, providing a rising-demand context in which differentiation on brand experience rather than price alone carries strategic weight. The decision to film at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles rather than simulate a Hollywood aesthetic in New Zealand signals deliberate investment in authenticity, lending the parody sequences the visual credibility that makes the comedy land. Casting Rhys Darby — a New Zealand comedian with international recognition — alongside Anna Faris, an established Hollywood presence, bridges the airline's domestic identity with its aspiration to be perceived as a world-class long-haul carrier connecting New Zealand to Los Angeles and beyond.
Director Steve Saussey led the production of "Safety in Hollywood" for Air New Zealand, shooting across four sets at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles over two days in 2016. The compressed shoot schedule against a large-scale studio backdrop required precise pre-production, with the film's genre-parody structure — cycling through a police procedural, a horror film, a French art-house sequence, and additional Hollywood tropes, as described by the Daily Express — demanding distinct visual grammars for each vignette rather than a single unified aesthetic.
The creative team at True was led by executive creative director Craig Pethybridge, with creative directors Dom Antelme and Ian Sweeney shaping the campaign concept, and copywriter Scott Moyes writing the script that threaded genuine safety information through each genre parody. Director of photography Danny Ruhlmann handled the cinematography, and the production was executed by Jungle Films under executive producers Yolande Dewey and Nick Simkins, with agency producer Fiona Champtaloup overseeing the agency side of the shoot. Post-production was handled by Joerg Fuchs at Blockhead. The casting of Rhys Darby and Anna Faris is itself a creative decision with structural logic: Darby's comedic persona is rooted in affable, slightly hapless energy that disarms the authority of safety messaging, while Faris brings Hollywood genre-film fluency that makes the parody read as insider rather than imitative. Together they allow the film to operate simultaneously as genuine comedy and as a recognisable Air New Zealand brand property, extending the airline's established creative voice into a Los Angeles production context without losing its New Zealand character.
No verified campaign-specific awards for "Safety in Hollywood" are publicly available across Cannes Lions, Effies, The One Show, D&AD, Clios, Webby Awards, or WARC. No published sales lift, revenue increase, passenger growth, or brand-tracking data specific to this campaign has been located. What is documented is audience reach at the distribution level: according to Apex Aero, the film exceeded 770,000 YouTube views within several days of its release in July 2016, a figure that contextualises quickly against the broader series, given that Air New Zealand's safety-video catalogue had attracted more than 50 million online views in total, as noted by the same source.
Air New Zealand's 2016 corporate standing reinforces the brand environment in which the campaign operated. The airline was named Airline of the Year by AirlineRatings.com, World's Best Premium Economy Class by the Skytrax World Airline Awards, and International Airline of the Year by the Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards in 2016, though none of these recognitions are attributed to "Safety in Hollywood" specifically. Structurally, the campaign demonstrates the effectiveness of the safety-video format as a low-friction content vehicle: it requires no consumer behaviour change to consume, it travels freely across social platforms, and it generates press coverage — including coverage in the Daily Express and reporting by karryon.com.au — that extends reach well beyond the airline's owned channels. The 770,000-view threshold reached within days of launch suggests the Hollywood production escalated velocity relative to earlier entries in the series, though direct comparative data is not publicly available.
"Safety in Hollywood" is a July 2016 in-flight safety video created by New Zealand agency True for Air New Zealand. It stars Rhys Darby and Anna Faris in Hollywood film-genre parodies filmed at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles, delivering standard pre-flight safety instructions through comedy rather than conventional presentation.
Rhys Darby and Anna Faris star in the Air New Zealand Safety in Hollywood video. Darby is a New Zealand comedian with international recognition, and Faris is an established Hollywood actress. Their pairing bridges Air New Zealand's domestic New Zealand identity with its positioning as a major long-haul carrier serving Los Angeles.
The Safety in Hollywood video was filmed at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles. Production took place across four sets over two days in 2016, giving the film authentic Hollywood production values. The shoot was directed by Steve Saussey and produced by Jungle Films for Air New Zealand and agency True.
The Safety in Hollywood video exceeded 770,000 YouTube views within several days of its July 2016 release, according to apex.aero. Air New Zealand's broader safety-video series had accumulated more than 50 million online views in total across all productions, as also reported by apex.aero.
Safety in Hollywood continues a content strategy Air New Zealand established with its "Nothing to Hide" video in 2009, as noted by stoppress.co.nz. Subsequent productions featured Sir Peter Jackson and a Middle-earth theme before the 2016 Hollywood production. Each video transforms the mandatory safety briefing into shareable entertainment, building cumulative brand equity for the New Zealand airline.
True, an Auckland-based New Zealand agency, created the Safety in Hollywood campaign for Air New Zealand. The creative team was led by executive creative director Craig Pethybridge, with creative directors Dom Antelme and Ian Sweeney and copywriter Scott Moyes shaping the script that embedded genuine safety content inside Hollywood genre parody.
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