Curious’ Taika Waititi called his newest film The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made. Guess what? It is. The safety film for Air New Zealand also sits high on the sneaky advert ladder, whose rungs are already brimming with brand films, activations, techy-toys and Instagram posts.

Yep, it doubles as an ad for the third and final film in The Hobbit Trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. It also does a sterling job of pumping up New Zealand’s top spots to visit.

Waititi has cherry-picked actors from all three Hobbit films – Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins), Dean O’Gorman (Fili the Dwarf) and Sylvester McCoy (Radagast). Director, Sir Peter Jackson, and Waititi also appear in the film, Waititi as a bearded wizard. So does Weta Workshop co-founder, Sir Richard Taylor.

Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop (armour, specialty costumes, weapons, vehicles and props) supplied costumes and more than 150 prosthetics. His VFX company, Weta Digital, created the visual effects.

Waititi’s second feature film, Boy, is still New Zealand’s highest grossing local film of all time. His best known advertising work is the Pot Noodle Moussaka Rap for Mother London.

Blazed gathered a huge armful of awards in the 2013-4 ad awards season. And What We Do in the Shadows, is his latest and third feature film, about a group of vampires who live together in Wellington, New Zealand.

Air New Zealand’s safety video show reel now includes the Bear Essentials of Safety featuring Bear Grylls, Safety Old School Style starring Betty White and Fit to Fly with Richard Simmons.

This is the one that kicked off the phenomenon – An Unexpected Briefing.

And this is the one that got Air New Zealand talked about. Guess why: