Emirates’ new safety video starts with a bold claim: “This is your no-nonsense safety video.” How no-nonsense? An airhostess spells it out: “We do not have dancers breaking into song, characters from movies or celebrities trying to be funny, I am afraid.”
But somewhere, Jennifer Aniston wakes up screaming and questions the whole, or part, of the premise of the new ‘no-nonsense’ ad.
Remember that ad? Where Aniston asks about showers and lie-flat beds and gets laughed at by flight attendants? Where the entire premise was “flying non-Emirates is your worst nightmare”? The internet remembers.
The humble brag—we’re so no-nonsense now that we’ll spend an entire video announcing how no-nonsense we are—doesn’t hold up. That’s like showing up to a party and immediately announcing you don’t like drama. It’s the aviation equivalent of bumping into your ex at a coffee shop and pretending you’ve never met. Except your ex is Jennifer Aniston, and instead of coffee, we’re talking about a reportedly $20 million advertising campaign where she literally wakes up screaming because she’s not on an Emirates flight.
Nobody’s mad, Emirates. Just confused, and entertained. Mostly entertained. This is the kind of chaotic energy that makes marketing interesting. Own it. Or don’t own it. Just maybe don’t announce you’re not doing the thing while we’re all holding receipts showing you definitely did the thing.
The airline isn’t wrong. This particular safety video has no celebrities, no jokes, no musical numbers. But advertising history has a long tail. The result isn’t hypocrisy—just a quietly amusing contradiction.
Also, passengers tuning into a safety video rarely wonder whether the airline considered casting a movie star. Yet Emirates brings it up anyway, as if pre-emptively denying an accusation no one made. Which only raises the question: was the line necessary—or just irresistibly tempting?
