Men in Black onboard with Air NZ

Men in Black onboard with Air NZ
By Hannah Edensor


The airline famous for its safety videos is back in black. Literally.

Air New Zealand has joined forces with the All Blacks and a stellar line-up of international rugby superstars to take on a major safety battle in Men in Black Safety Defenders.

In a prominent nod to the famous Men in Black franchise, Air NZ’s latest safety installment features All Blacks’ Captain Richie McCaw and Dan Carter as Men in Black agents.

Their mission? To keep people safe, with sidekicks including long-serving All Blacks Coach Steve Hansen, and team mates Kieran Read, Keven Mealamu, Sam Whitelock and Israel Dagg.

Even Kiwi muso Stan Walker gets to jump onboard for this video.

American actor Rip Torn reprises his role as Chief of the Men in Black with Wallabies great David Campese, former England Captain Martin Johnson and former Argentinean Captain Agustin Pichot making cameo appearances.

“It’s been exciting to help Air New Zealand bring the Men in Black universe to life in this unique way,” Sony Pictures Entertainment’s executive vp Emmanuelle Borde said after collaborating on the video with the airline.

“The creative concept and the parallels drawn between the All Blacks and the Men in Black are really clever.”

Air New Zealand’s head of global brand development Jodi Williams says the airline is crazy about rugby making the All Blacks the perfect partner for its latest safety offering.

“We recently extended our sponsorship of the All Blacks and New Zealand Rugby through until 2020 and thought what better way to celebrate than with a safety video,” Williams said.

“We’ve worked with the All Blacks on previous safety videos and thought it would be fun this time around to have them step into the shoes of the other highly trained Men in Black. The result is not only entertaining but makes people sit up and take notice of the key safety messages.”

And the boys in black had a great time making the video too, with All Blacks Captain McCaw adding it was an entertaining project.

“We had a lot of laughs on set and were blown away by Israel’s hidden singing talent. If rugby doesn’t work out for him he clearly has a promising career as a back-up singer,” he said.

New Zealand Rugby’s chief executive officer Steve Tew says it’s a big year for the All Blacks and with plenty of travel on the cards the team was keen to be involved in delivering the airline’s safety briefing to fellow customers.

“Air New Zealand’s been a long-time supporter of the All Blacks and New Zealand Rugby and has played a crucial role in connecting the team to fans across the globe through inventive and colourful marketing efforts such as Men in Black Safety Defenders,” Tew said.

The video will be progressively rolled out across the airline’s fleet from today, but enough talk – have a little watch of the video right here:

Latest News