Friday, January 31, 2014

Airline Safety Videos Takes Flight with New Trend

Over the past decade, airlines have decided to spice up their flights by producing safety videos with new twists. Now, instead of smiling stewardesses and boring diagrams, several airline companies have come up with creative ways to tell you how to correctly buckle your seatbelt.

This video, produced by Virgin America in 2007, began the steady trend of attempting to entertainment their audiences, rather than just preach safety to a crowd of sleeping or frustrated flyers. It's dry humor and doodle-like design are thanks to Anomoly, a branding firm and the video's animators, Gordon P. Clark, Nick Hewitt, and Mike Overbeck.


After the launch of this quirky animation, Delta Airlines and Air New Zealand joined in the fun. In 2011, Air New Zealand released a video featuring none other than Richard Simmons. Starting out as a normal safety video, we are pleasantly surprised when a fully decked out Simmons struts center stage with his jubilant crew not far behind. A good tactic by Air New Zealand, knowing it takes a special person to ignore Simmons' charisma.


My personal favorites are from this year, from Delta and Virgin America. Delta takes us back to the 80s with their retro take on airplane safety. Sporting mullets, neon and recognizable icons such as Alf and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Airplane! anyone?), the confused passengers demonstrate how to use modern safety technology on the plane.


Virgin America's latest video takes the cake for me. Starring youtube sensation Todrick Hall by director Jon M. Chu, this video is another turning point for safety videos around the world. The entire production is a music video, complete with clever lyrics and amazing dance moves from the cast without losing the educational purpose. After this, I'm excited to see what the following years of safety videos have to offer.


Last but not least, this ridiculous safety video from Air New Zealand has nerds everywhere booking flights to the country where Middle Earth was set. Using their connection with the film trilogy Lord of the Rings, Air New Zealand came out with a video in 2012 featuring our favorite characters from the movies struggling to follow safety instructions. There's even cameos from Sir Peter Jackson himself, and the ever loveable Gollum.


No matter how awesome or awful these safety videos are, anything's better than the dry, snooze worthy videos that came before. Keep up the good work guys.

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