Scoot uses VR to show what's 'Permitted on board' its 787

Working with Untitled Project, Scoot has created a virtual tour of its newest airliner, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

As part of a wider campaign titled 'Permitted on board', the brand will bring the VR experience to popup locations in high traffic areas in China, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia. 

Viewers receive a 3D tour of the ‘Scoot Economy’, ‘ScootBiz’ and ‘ScootinSilence’ cabins, which are populated by a variety of 2D animated characters including children playing football, several people who will not stop dancing, a miniature Bruce Lee, a device-happy robot and a levitating yogi.

All in all, it's a pleasant enough way to pass a few minutes. And Ad Nut supposes that given the novelty of VR, people might even queue up to view it at one of the pop-up locations.

That said, touring a passenger jet is just not much of a draw, as immersive experiences go. There's nothing wrong with Scoot trying to promote its ambiance and in-flight features, nor with Untitled Project's execution. But, if brands don't offer more compelling experiences via VR, people will quickly become jaded about popup VR experiences. They'll become nothing but another ad format to avoid. And that would be a shame.

Moving on the the actual message rather than the medium, some of the supposed benefits Scoot is touting here seem silly. For example, wide aisles are not an incredibly attractive feature, since you're meant to stay seated with your seat belt on most of the time. And certainly playing football in the aisles is likely to be frowned upon.

Then, at about 1:20 in the video above, the friendly flight attendant offers an incredible "tip" for maxing out your space in economy class: booking the seats around you. LOL. Ad Nut is not sure whether this is simply wishful thinking on the brand's part, or whether the brand is really trying (but failing) to argue that for the price of one seat on a full-service airline, you could have two seats on a Scoot flight. But either way it's bizarre and laughable. Nice try, but I'm not going to pay double just so I can have a bigger personal space bubble. 

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. Check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame.