Virgin America portrays the awfulness of air travel in terrifying 6-hour long video
In an elaborate campaign designed to criticize their competitors, Virgin America has launched the fictional company, BLAH Airlines, to parody just how dull flying on some airlines can be. In an insufferable six-hour long video posted to YouTube, Virgin satirizes its rivals with a truly disturbing depiction of a long flight experience in first person, through a cast of passengers made of inanimate, yet talking, mannequins that are unbelievably creepy.
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"We're not any other airline: we're BLAH," says BLAH's slogan.
At first, the video seems to just capture the mundane boringness of air travel, though slowly portrays the all too common horrors of flying in a twisted, cerebral and completely unnerving style as the spoof video delves into Salvator Dali-esque surrealism. The placid, unmoving expressions of the passengers certainly do not add any comfort, either.
Some of the most mind-wrenching BLAH Airlines annoyances include:
-A small child bouncing in the seat in front of you.
-The same child taking an unwelcome interest in you.
-Overhearing the most boring, asinine conversations that never, ever end.
-The overwhelming sound of chewing peanuts.
-All the while, being confined to your seat area.
-And the monotony of the engine hum is deafening.
Then, at about 1:25:25, when the protagonist tries to sleep, the video takes a 90 degree turn into full-blown bizarre. For about 18 minutes, the hero is able to escape the nightmare of BLAH Airlines into a peaceful dream inside the non-sequitur subconscious of his mind. Sadly, for the hero, he's brought back to misery once the flight attendant finally hands him his coffee that he had ordered almost an hour prior.
In a hilarious twist, Virgin included YouTube annotations as easter-eggs in small areas throughout the video, allowing you to jump around to their core message hidden at exactly 3:39:39: "Depart BLAH Airlines," which jumps to a point where the protagonist gazes out the plane window to see a Virgin America jet passing by, followed by a link to go to VirginAmerica.com. Despite being nearly six full hours long, filled to the brim with everything you'll find annoying and uncomfortable, the video already has more than 100,000 views in one day.
The video is just the centerpiece at the heart of the BLAH Airlines campaign. The faux company has its own website and social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
What do you hate most about flying? Let us know in the comments below.
