Virgin Atlantic Channels James Bond for Global Campaign

Over the summer, Virgin Atlantic gussied up its livery. Now ready for primetime, today it's rolling out the Branson-owned brand's first ever global TV ad.

The airline image spot, which features Muse's cover of Nina Simone's Feeling Good, aims to evoke James Bond and other stylish movie title opening sequences, according to the Guardian (which pegs the spot's cost at around £6 million, or almost US$9.5 million).

Featuring the tagline, "Your airline's either got it or it hasn't," Virgin says the aim is to take the viewer "on a metaphorical flight with Virgin Atlantic - a surreal and glamorous world of airline iconography and dramatising how it feels to fly with the airline."

The ad launches in cinemas in the UK today and on British TV from Sunday; and in the US starting October 10 in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington and Boston.

Virgin Atlantic celebrated its 25th anniversary last year with the spot below, which (as the brand stated) a racy "look back at how it has become a leading airline player. The inaugural flight, VS1 from Gatwick to Newark, New Jersey on 22nd June 1984, was a miracle in itself having been planned in just a few weeks."