This weekend, while browsing through the many aviation-related stories circulating around this weekend, I stumbled upon Air New Zealand’s “Bare Essentials of Safety” safety video. The cabin-crew in the video, are wearing nothing but body-paint aboard the aircraft. The video alone has spurred public interest, as it already has over 3 million hits on YouTube.
“We think in tough times there’s a premium for making people smile, and it gives the opportunity to stand out in a crowd,” Air New Zealand’s marketing general manager Steve Bayliss told The Associated Press.
Mr. Bayliss is correct. Everyone hates safety videos, right? Especially when you have 2 or more flights a day – by then, you’re just sick of hearing about inserting the metal fitting into the buckle. And if you’re a frequent flier, you just start to tune out the safety message.
Carriers have tuned in on this, and have made the realization that passengers aren’t all that interested in hearing safety instructions. However, sometimes it’s just the flight attendants that make the safety message far more enjoyable. Southwest Airlines is, and historically has always been, the leader in most hilarious crewmember instructions.
At the end of the day, these safety instructions keep us safe. And, if it takes wacky ideas to get us to pay attention to safety demonstrations, so be it – we’re all much safer then we were.
