As part of Virgin Atlantic's £5m multi-media marketing campaign, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe / Y&R commissioned a series of images promoting the Upper Class Suite. ​​​​​​​
Appearing in the UK press, internet and 96 sheet billboards across London, the adverts mixed clichés of English landed gentry with familiar aspects of New York, San Francisco, Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo. In this advert for San Francisco, an easy rider hunts foxes . . .
Advertising for first-class long-haul aviation tends to play on exclusivity: svelte cabin attendants, exquisite food, exotic locations, businessmen in suits etc. Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class deliberately sets out to subvert this well-worn approach with a playful use of irony, appealing to a more youthful, aspirational, self-aware audience. In this advert for New York, the statue of Liberty delicately sips tea from bone China . . .
The yellow checker cab gets an Upper Class makeover, based on the 1937 Rolls Royce: spacious, distinctive, stylishly impractical and wastefully elegant.
Bruce Lee wears a monocle
Gold pocket-watch brings a touch of class to kangaroo's pouch
Artwork for a 90ft hoarding at the entrance to London's Gatwick airport
Unpublished artwork for San Francisco: Haight-Ash hobo with a touch of Noel Coward
The illustrations were awarded Bronze for Advertising in the 2006 Association of Illustrators World Illustration Awards. The ads were selected as finalists in the Campaign Poster Awards 2005: Best Use of Ambient Poster Advertising - The Admedia Award and also featured in Campaign magazine's Top Virgin Atlantic ads by RKCR/Y&R.
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