Tech Tuesday :: Rico Suave

I'd like to introduce you to Rico, the pantless spokes-muppet-squirrel for Air New Zealand wearing nothing but a crisp white shirt and a Saturday Night Fever-inspired purple polyester vest. He's been around since fall 2010, but continues to heat up the internet and garner millions of views with his saucy brand of advertising rhetoric expounding the benefits of the airline, its home country and culture.

Gen X and Yers, you're supposed to listen to him, but not take him too seriously as he delivers humour-ridden key messages about his preferred airline. With two little fang-ish teeth, oversized bright green googly eyes, fur like my old teddy bear and a tail much longer than his entire body, his semi-cute looks let him get away with A LOT of free-spirited chatter.

Rico's chochy-meets-cute look says it all, he's suggestive, he's spicy and even though he speaks with a Spanish accent, he's born in New Zealand---a culture where advertising takes a few more liberties than in North America, hence Rico's less regulated internet {vs more regulated TV} platform. In case Rico's genre of humour-meets-advertising is offensive to you, don't forget that it comes from the Airline who's done flight safety videos with body painted flight attendants, a streaking grandma and Richard Simmons.

Love or hate the airline's furry fiend with a penchant for r-r-r-olling his Rs, Air New Zealand is all about attention, and they do it well. Really well, always staying on message, aside from the innuendoes. In their words {thanks a recent social media strategy video} "when you're a little airline from the bottom of the world, you have to throw out the marketing rulebook of you want to get noticed on the international stage."

Every time I watch one of these videos I'm a little shocked {which is the point} by who {think Lindsay Lohan and David Hasselhoff} and what they feature in a segment called "on the skycouch"---a play on the Airline's revolutionary fold-out seats-turned-beds in Economy. Yet no matter what celebrity raps or chats with Rico, I cant stop laughing.

Kudos to Rico for making me laugh---sometimes to the point of crying---and constantly reminding me that New Zealand is a country on my travel bucketlist I'd like to visit by way of a Skycouch!

{Trip Styler Tip :: Air New Zealand, flies direct to Auckland from Vancouver and LA. Note there are multiple other departure points with Air New Zealand's Star Alliance codeshare partners.} 

Starring Rico, Videos Rico with Giulinana Rancic

Rico with David Hasselhoff

Rico with Snoop Dogg

Rico Expressing His Love For Kim Kardashian

PS - check out this funny {as always} travel tech interview with Rico by ZDNet Australia. Order your meal via personal touchscreen, message other passengers and use your cell phone in-flight. Wow, what a concept, especially in comparison to planes with overhead monitors every 30 seats.

Related Sweet and Saucy Travel Videos Sassy Flight Safety Videos

Sassy Flight Safety Videos

Bet you didn't think sassy and flight safety videos went together!  Well, if you're Air New Zealand, they do!  The below videos are laugh-out-loud funny and a welcome departure from boring pre-flight safety announcements.

{Travel Beauty Month contest--->win some fab travel-sized Tarte cosmetics by engaging with our Facebook group.  Details Here. Contest ends TODAY.}

An Ode to Air New Zealand Some background: although I've never flown Air New Zealand, I'm obsessed and impressed with their branding. Having started my career in Advertising, my inner marketer is always pleasantly surprised, entertained and convinced by all of their campaigns---and I just might fly with them when I go to Australia this fall/winter.

Back on Task For good reason, there's a lot of seriousness around pre-flight announcements and airline safety.  Incidentally, I pay greater attention and retain more info from these fun videos, than I do the run-of-the-mill airline safety videos---and it's not just because there's body paint and a streaking grandma, although that does help. Even though I've seen these videos many times, as I re-watch them for this post, I have tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.  Enjoy.

The Bare Essentials Body-painted flight attendants and a pilot talk airline safety for the in-flight video.

Crazy About Rugby New Zealand's famous All Blacks Rugby Team (and a streaking grandma) assist Air New Zealand's flight attendants and pilots with their newest safety video.

Trip Styler Tip ~ Spooning There's a new way to ride in Economy! Did you know you could spoon on an Air New Zealand's Skycouch? Their economy seats have an extra fold-out, so two people can lie down over 3 seats. It's true. See the pic below and the viral video they released to introduce the idea, which is of course, funny.

Spooning

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