My recent flight to New Zealand was with Air New Zealand, and of course, included the boring as batshit video on aircraft safety :(
No, wait. That was a lie. The boring as batshit video on aircraft safety that accompanies every other flight of every other airline I’ve ever been on does not fly with Air New Zealand1. No, Air New Zealand’s safety videos are feckin’ awesome! For three reasons:
- They are entertaining and funny. Truly. I’ve noticed this about NZ’s TV advertising on previous trips. New Zealand appears to have really good creative talent in their ad agencies, as well as (I imagine) the most trusting clients in the world. Seriously, super-jealous. Can someone from the NZ ad world confirm this to be true?
- As a result of the entrainment value, I paid attention. Let me say that again with emphasis: I paid attention. And I did so because I was engaged. That is the best possible result for an air safety video any airline could hope for. I could see the lawyers having issues with some ‘correct’ wording being changed to native slang for comedic effect, but really, it’s still understood (even by an Aussie ;). Anyway, if the plane goes down the people who didn’t pay attention will likely end up dead. No lawsuits.
- They change it up. During both flights (to and from New Zealand) I saw two different videos. This is bittersweet; I was so excited by the first video I was hoping to see it again on the way back. Unfortunately I didn’t. Fortunately the second video was just as awesome as the first!
I wish other airlines would follow in Air New Zealand’s footsteps. They may already be doing this as I’ve only really been flying Air Asia in the past 12 months. If so, good on those airlines! If not, get the hell on board!2 It’s a win/win for your image, and your passenger’s safety.
Here’s the video I saw on the way over to NZ:
And the video on the flight back to Oz:
And another one I’d not seen (but had heard about from native Webstockers):
Update
@staticred sent through a new video. Hilarious!