Celebrities appear in new BA safety video
A team of celebrities, including Rowan “Mr Bean” Atkinson, Gordon Ramsay, Rob Brydon, Sir Ian McKellen and Thandie Newton, make appearances in British Airways’ entertaining new pre-flight safety video, which launches in September.
The airline explained in a news release that the new film features some of Britain’s best-loved personalities and is designed “to help customers absorb important safety messages, while boosting fund-raising for ‘Flying Start’, the global charity partnership between British Airways and Comic Relief”.
“It’s extremely important to us that customers engage with our safety video, and involving some of the nation’s most well-known personalities has given us the chance to create something fun that we hope people will watch from start to finish – and remember,” the release quotes British Airways Chairman and CEO Alex Cruz.
The airline says it intends to raise £20 million by 2020 under its partnership with Comic Relief to help children around the world living incredibly tough lives.
Comic Relief is a UK charity which states that its aim is to “create a just world, free from poverty, where everyone is safe, healthy, educated and empowered”. Since 1985, Comic Relief has raised over £1 billion that has helped people living difficult lives in the UK and across the world.
“We’ve worked with Comic Relief since 2010 and our customers have already helped us generate £16.5 million for great causes. We hope the new video will enable us to exceed our goal of raising £20 million by 2020,” Cruz said.
In the video, 10 celebrities are seen auditioning in humorous sketches in front of comedian Asim Chaudhry, as his People Just Do Nothing character Chabuddy G, for a coveted part, while simultaneously demonstrating the safety features and procedures on the aircraft.
At the end of the video, “Mr Bean” comically fumbles around his seat for loose change to place in a Flying Start envelope, which are available to customers on flights to enable them to make donations to Comic Relief.
In addition to “Mr Bean”, Ramsay, Brydon, Sir Ian and Newton, the other celebrities featured are Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson, Warwick Davis, and Jess Glynne.
