Carnival Cruises recruits Peter Serafinowicz for debut UK campaign

The campaign by Karmarama launched this week. It features a series of spots with a "Switch on fun" button placed at the heart of a mundane situation.

The humorous ads feature British couples and families looking apprehensively at each other before flicking the switch and being transported to a sunny cruise holiday.

Each ad ends with a price promotion and the "Switch on fun" strapline, which comes under the brand’s overall "Fun for all. All for fun" messaging.

Adolfo Perez, managing director at Carnival Cruise Lines UK, said: "Our new ads are unlike anything you'll see in the travel sector. We looked at what everyone else was doing and knew straight away that we wanted to be different.

"The spots will make you laugh and think about how great it would be to be transported onto one of our floating resorts for the holiday of a lifetime."

Carnival Cruises is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, which owns Cunard, P&O Cruises and Costa Cruises.

Carnival UK operates the Cunard and P&O lines, and in September last year, recruited Whitbread marketer Gerard Tempest as its new chief commercial officer, amid a restructure.

The parent company is currently being sued by British passengers and crew members who survived the Costa Concordia disaster in January last year, according to The Daily Telegraph.

At the time, passengers were first offered 30% off future cruises, before being offered £8,900 in damages, which included a clause to halt any further legal action. Some of the British passengers and crew accepted the money, while the majority rejected it and have joined a class action asking for thousands of pounds from the company, the paper reported.

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk