Once everyone is seated and before take-off, airlines will play their safety video. It is important to watch as it tells you all you need to know in the event of an emergency. These videos are usually quite formal, featuring cabin crew solemnly telling you what you need to do. After seeing the videos multiple times most frequent travellers tune out – which is exactly what people shouldn’t do.

Safety with Pizzazz

Air New Zealand spend a good deal of money regularly changing their safety videos. They feature well known personalities or themes to appeal to the general public. They are also quite funny. This video featuring Richard Simmons is one of the most outrageous and one of the best!

It’s a disco fever exercise extravaganza! I can see why they would rotate the videos though – this kind of perky happiness would probably grate seeing it the fiftieth time on a 7am departure. Regardless, it is just totally brilliant!

All Singing, All Dancing Safety

Virgin America (now owned by Alaska Airlines) presented this all singing, all dancing, all rapping safety video. There are even nuns for goodness sake! A lot of the video is done with an original song and lyrics to fit the message.

I think it is brilliantly written and choreographed with just a hint of madness to keep it fresh. Nice work, Virgin America!

Betty White’s Safety Scandal

We love Betty White and so do the people at Air New Zealand. It is very clear this airline has a sense of humour. This time we’re at the Second Wind Retirement Resort where Betty and her friends provide this safety demonstration.

There are a couple of great lines in this one and it’s always good to see Betty stealing scenes everywhere she goes!

Overall Thoughts

Safety videos are very important however they’re usually quite boring. Air New Zealand have turned their videos into something of an Internet sensation which is a fantastic marketing point for the airline. It also gets everyone watching them even when they’re not flying which is definitely a good thing. More airlines should spend a little money on this kind of thing as I love it.

Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or know of any other wacky safety videos please leave them below.

Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.