I absolutely love this, and now can’t get it out of my head…
In this post:
Alaska Airlines’ amazing safety dance
Alaska Airlines has revealed a new minute-long ad, known as the “Alaska Safety Dance,” and it’s… simply amazing. Check it out here, and then we’ll talk more about it below:
For those who don’t want to watch the whole thing or couldn’t understand everything, here are the lyrics:
S-A-F-E-T-Y safety dance /
We can fly where you want to, we can leave your house behind, but if your friends don’t mask and why don’t they mask well they won’t fly this airline /
You can fly if you wan to ’cause we do safety right, we have air that’s clean and disinfectant machines zapping germs like an arcade space fight /
And we dance, do the dance, everybody wash some hands /
Do the dance, do the dance, while always wearing a mask /
Do the dance, do the dance, no seriously please wash your hands /
Do the dance, do the dance, HEPA filters cleaning commence /
Alaska’s safety dance, Alaska’s safety dance, Alaska’s safety dance…
What I wasn’t aware of initially is that this is based on a 1980s song, also called “Safety Dance,” which you can see here:
Personally I think the Alaska Airlines version is better, but I’m biased. 😉 For that matter, I prefer this video to Virgin America’s old safety video (I find one to be cute and annoying, and the other to just be cute):
Also, to be clear, this is an ad, and not part of an actual safety video. Alaska Airlines doesn’t otherwise have individual monitors on planes, so there’s no screened safety video. How cute to see an airline focus on this in their advertising.
The best part of the Alaska safety dance
As far as I’m concerned, the best part of all of this is that these are all real Alaska Airlines employees. The 11 employees featured filmed this in an Alaska Airlines hangar over the course of three days.
They were given the routine to practice at home before this, then there was an eight hour dress rehearsal, and then the actual filming happened over the course of two days.
Bottom line
Kudos to Alaska Airlines, and to the great employees pictured, for this awesome ad. What a catchy video, and I love how authentic the whole thing feels. Then there’s the awesomeness of this all being based off a song from decades ago called “Safety Dance.”
Now I just need to get this out of my head. S-A-F-E-T-Y…
Maybe it’s time to shut down the Turkish Airlines hold music support group, and replace that with an Alaska Airlines safety dance support group?
https://newsroom.alaskaair.com/2020-12-22-Alaska-Airlines-Announces-Restructured-Agreement-With-Boeing-To-Acquire-A-Total-Of-68-737-9-MAX-Aircraft-With-Options-For-Another-52
@Lucky, fun video, but the fact that you'd never heard The Safety Dance before made me feel very old indeed!
Cebu Pacific actually danced a safety dance years ago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjapY4U0-HY (the male version)
My mother flew SEA to SNA today and the flight attendants on her flight were not wearing masks. The people sitting directly around her also not wearing masks and no one asked them to put one on. Very disappointing! We flew to JFK on Jet Blue and home on United - 100% mask compliance on both flights.
A one hit wonder, but Canadian band!
I love Alaska, but “fun” isn’t a word I’d use to describe them. Until now, I guess. Good for them.
Call me jaded however I thought it was a poor budget imitation of the Virgin Safety video
It wasn't as entertaining as I expected and seemed forced and awkward
A for effort. Alaska is friendly but old and stodgy
I'd be far happier to seeing everyone employed again and the airline honoring its confirmed system-wide upgrades for elites.Alaska really made a number of deeply disappointing choices during the pandemic some of which...
Call me jaded however I thought it was a poor budget imitation of the Virgin Safety video
It wasn't as entertaining as I expected and seemed forced and awkward
A for effort. Alaska is friendly but old and stodgy
I'd be far happier to seeing everyone employed again and the airline honoring its confirmed system-wide upgrades for elites.Alaska really made a number of deeply disappointing choices during the pandemic some of which I understand temporarily.I won't be pursuing elite status again after 3 years with them sadly
I might fly them on some rare occasions in the future if the restore non stops/routes and return full size aircraft as well as take care of the customer better as they did pre pandemic
@Ben, oh boy you never heard of the Safety Dance? That was such a huge club hit in its day. Which, sadly for me as I "out" my age, was in my youth. We had a whole routine that my friends and I used to do when we were at Boston's infamous "Spit" club (yup, you get the name right) and we hit the floor when the song came on. This is retro for sure, but in a fun, creative and IMO very cheeky way. Kudos to Alaska!
Men Without Hats are a Canadian new wave and synth-pop band, originally from Montreal, Quebec.
Ben: I so disagree with your comments about the Virgin America safety video. My initial reaction to this video was that AS was trying to imitate the Toddrick Hall style but only reinforced how older and more stodgy AS is than VX was.
I never tired of watching the Toddrick Hall VX safety videos. they were the most entertaining.
Well done Alaska—catchy and creative! I think it also captures the travel optimism we are all trying to feel going into next year. Having flown Alaska three times this year, I certainly feel safe flying with them and their great crews.
Very creative.
Side note: Mad props to the employee that was able to kick pac-man (or whatever it was) at eye level when they said "zapping gems like an arcade space fight." My hip began hurting just watching that. HA!
This is fantastic and is unlikely to leave my mind all day! The original was a huge hit about 7 years before you were born, Lucky. I think you were an 18 or 19 year old kid when I met you in 2008 on Randy Petersen's Open Skies free weekend trip to Paris.
It is amazing to read back your Turkish Airlines music article, love it! I very much enjoyed their Lego safety video; It's a party in the sky with Turkish Airlines. Ah the memories.