British Airways have created a new safety video which is scheduled to debut on flights in September. In a departure from the previous video, the new video features a host of stars being humorous while delivering the safety message.
The video also informs customers about the Flying Start charity that British Airways operate in partnership with Comic Relief. This charity helps children who are living tough lives and has raised £16.5 million since 2010.
The New Safety Video
Apparently this version of the video is the Director’s Cut and the actual video will be slightly longer which is surprising since it is already very long at over six minutes. I assume this means the beginning and end will have British Airways branded bookends.
It is great seeing a host of familiar stars presenting the video and considering the current animated video has been around for a very long time, it will be great to see a change.
First Impressions
To me, the humour is best described as gentle rather than total laugh out loud funny. Everyone featured sort of stays within their usual style. For example Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean who does usual Mr. Bean type things at the end of the video.
Gordon Ramsay drops an expletive which is something he is well known for. Obviously it is beeped out but it certainly caused me to question whether that is appropriate for a safety video. I like Gordon Ramsay and I have no issue with swearing but I am not sure how I feel about it here. Below is the behind the scenes video.
All of the safety aspects are covered very well though I will be interested to see how people react after seeing it multiple times. The way it is linked together with the director is a little bit annoying and on second viewing I thought that could be dropped.
Putting the Flying Start charity message in the video is a good thing as it will mean the message is given on every flight. Currently this message is given by cabin crew in a much more verbose way so it will save an announcement during flight. With it happening every time it should increase donations.
Overall Thoughts
Change is usually a good thing and it is nice to see that the British Airways safety video is being refreshed. I think people will welcome the change and enjoy the new video. It covers all the safety messages and is presented in an amusing way.
Any video that features Gillian Anderson, Sir Ian McKellen, Gordon Ramsay, Rowan Atkinson and Warwick Davis is okay by me. What do you think of the new video? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for reading!
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Images and video via British Airways.
