The Art of a Safety Video
The safety video is synonymous with modern day travel. It’s expected that you’ll get some variation on it on every flight, no matter where in the world you are. We don’t really give much thought to it - it’s just… there. But it’s absolutely critical to our safety. Yes - in all likelihood, you’ll never need the information provided to you. Flying is very safe; the worldwide death per boarding is 13.4 million passengers to one fatality. And that’s an average brought down by some countries with less developed air safety protocols. In developed nations, like the United States, someone would have to take a flight daily for 25,214 years to potentially get into a crash of any severity.
But it still happens. It’s like keeping a fire extinguisher in your kitchen. Your stovetop probably never going to catch fire, but you have it as a just in case measure.
Since the safety video is so mundane, yet so critically important, airlines have to get people engaged. Most passengers will just tune it out, busy themselves with doing other things. Airlines have gotten very creative, spending millions of dollars on high quality, action packed videos peppered with figures in pop culture. British Airways, for example, created a video featuring musicians, athletes, and actors playing the role of passengers.
The safety video didn’t really emerge until the late 1980s. In the beginning, planes didn’t have television screens to play any sort of media on. Usually, a flight attendant or pilot would walk the passengers through the basic safety features of the aircraft verbally, perhaps with a few props like a life jacket or oxygen mask.
When safety videos began their life with Pan Am in 1986 (watch it HERE), they were rudimentary. Typically, they featured a flight attendant or pilot demonstrating how to open an exit door or deploy a raft. They weren’t that interesting, so people ignored them.
Airlines realized this. Studies during the 1990s of the Tenerife Disaster revealed that passengers who read the safety information card before takeoff had a 23% higher chance of surviving. But nobody was reading them, nor were they paying any attention to the video.
It was time for a change.
2007: Twitter and Facebook went global, The Sopranos ended, Madonna’s on tour, and Virgin America unveils their new safety video. It features comical sketch style characters informing the passengers about the safety features on board the A320s it was premiered on. People loved it. Ellen talked about it, David Lettermen talked about it - it was a big deal.
Airlines across the world took notice of this. Soon, carriers from British Airways to South African Airways began to create their own versions of these engaging videos. And it worked. Passengers were actually watching these videos and taking in the vital information.
In probably the most famous move in safety video history, in 2014, Air New Zealand unveiled the iconic Hobbit inspired video (watch it HERE). It featured fan favorite characters like Gandalf and Frodo, set in the stunning land of “Middle Earth” (the video was actually filmed on New Zealand’s South Island and on a soundstage in Auckland). It is noted for its incredibly high production value. The original cast from the Lord of the Rings trilogy were demonstrating the safety features of the aircraft in the most peculiar of places - on top of a cliff, in a tree, and even on the back of an eagle.
Passengers were captivated. It’s well known to people who’ve never even flown on Air New Zealand. Since it was posted on ANZ’s YouTube page 9 years ago, it has gained over 30 million views.
Still, according to self reporting surveys, only around 30% of travelers pay any attention to the safety information provided, either verbal instruction from the flight attendants, in video form, or the safety card in the seatback pocket.
