Two airlines made bold choices with their in-flight safety videos: Interpretive dance and RUN-DMC

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/08/two-airlines-made-bold-choices.html

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That second one doesn’t work on so many levels. And won’t somebody think of the poor grannies on the flight?

Two [more] Airlines Discover Guerilla Marketing

Delta should get into this game, using the distinktive chorus from Fergie’s London Bridge, or Savage’s Hip Swing… or perhaps, as it is the holiday season, the Mr. Hankey theme is most appropriate.

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I saw this on my last EVA air flight. First safety video I ever watched from start to finish.

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I haven’t watched the video yet, but what comes to mind for the second one is something like, “It’s tricky to buckle a seat belt, buckle a seat belt on a plane. It’s tricky. Tricky tricky tricky.”

I think I’m going to be disappointed.

ETA Oh, holy fuck that was atrocious. It’s nice to know that “it’s just like twerking”… what did I just watch? this can’t be real. My heart goes out to the flight crew.

The EVA one is fun to watch, no doubt, but for both of them, I have the same question: If I don’t speak English or Chinese, and I’m flying for the first time, how am I supposed to know where my safety vest is?

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1000 years from now archaeologists will say we had some odd superstitions about safety equipment.

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Virgin America used to have some interesting safety videos on their planes as well.


You can skip the annoying intro ad in a few seconds.
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Virgin America, before it got dismantled and absorbed into Alaska Airlines did it first and I think better.

It must be hard to make passenger safety content seem fun. When I rode Virgin America, the safety video became tedious after the 3rd viewing.

This is possibly a riff on the Southwest Airlines of the mid 90’s, where the flight attendants and flight crew would go out of their way to be entertaining.

Beat me to it!

They’ll never out-innovate the shit carting, pet killing, old man beating airlines of the good old U.S.A

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One there was a Southwest crew member that used to do the safety spiel with rubber chickens. It always got my attention. Another crew gave out candy, mini chocolate bars, to anybody the saw paying attention.

On the other end, I was once on a subcontracted flight with another airline where the pilot was also the ticket agent, baggage handler, fuel loader and preflight mechanic. The safety talk was a recording that started as we taxied and went like this, “Thank you for flying [REDACTED]. You are flying on a ____________. Emergency exits are located _______________. In the event of an emergency ___________________________________________. Oxygen masks are located ____________________. …” Just blank spots. It got my attention in addition to my coworker noting that the oxygen masks were stapled and screwed dozens of times to the plastic by the windows in a way that I don’t think we would have ever been able to get off. The life jackets were also stapled and screwed under the seats. There were also pigs on the plane, behind a movable bulkhead. And the pilot shut down one engine to safe fuel. (Pigs and passengers didn’t like that.) She also just drew a curtain during the steep landing and never turned off the “pull up bwoop bwoop pull up” klaxon which went off the entire time we headed in for a landing. But man, despite the weather and a strong crosswind, it was a super smooth landing. (Pigs and passengers liked this.)

I always watch the safety demonstration, but Lord of the Rings or famous people are fun once. I just want to get through it, read the card, remind myself where the exits are, and then go to sleep.

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I wish I could communicate with my gut flora the way these legal entities communicate with us…

Pilots will not typically shut down an engine during flight unless there are mechanical problems (which doesn’t sound too unreasonable given everything else you describe) which would prohibit its operation. Shutting down an engine over a long period exerts a certain amount of unintended stress on the airframe, not to mention the pilot has to work extra hard compensating for the asymmetric yaw, esp. during turns.

Also, in situations where an engine fails, and you’re not somewhere over a vast body of water, most airlines’ policy is to divert to the nearest major airport.

No comment on the “Pull up!” aural indication you heard.

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It was quite the flight. I am also glad to know that. It was only a guess that it was for fuel, because everything seemed to be about saving money with that particular flight. It was one of those flights where the tickets read, “seat E” but there were only two rows. The co-pilot moved us a few times for weight, once before takeoff. I remember my coworker saying at one point, as she grabbed my arm, “Nice trees!” and we laughed. We were never sure if the pilot needed to fly like that, or if they wanted to. We knew we were going to live, because the pilots wanted to.

That whole plane shifted everytime the hogs did. That must have been very hard on the pilots.

Also, I think I remember smelling oil and the breaks on landing, but oddly never the pigs, and pigs have a very distinctive smell.

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Air New Zealand have been doing these videos for years, too.

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Yes, exactly. The few times I’ve flown short-haul flights outside of the United States, the lack of excessive announcements has been so refreshing! It makes flying feel routine, like taking a train. I don’t need to hear a pitch for your branded credit card mid-flight (United…) or the sound of an open intercom for 30 seconds while trying to find the next page of the safety briefing…

I guess a dancer actually could assume the classic emergency position.

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