I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If you want passengers to pay attention to the safety demonstration, give them something they’ll want to pay attention to. Air New Zealand understands this with their very catchy safety videos, but now you can add Cebu Pacific to the list, with their live safety demos, featuring the flight attendants dancing to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry:
Now, for several reasons, I’m not suggesting flight attendants for US airlines do the same (I’ll leave my reasoning to your imagination), but for an airline like Cebu Pacific, this is brilliant.
(Tip of the hat to @wchrisburcham)
Has now been picked up by NYT:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/airline-defends-dancing-flight-attendants/?hp
I'm with you Lucky.....anything to get people to pay more attention during the safety briefings is a good thing. I'm really tired of people continuing their conversations (and getting louder to be heard OVER the briefing) holding up their newspapers, etc during the briefings. I know most of us can recite these things in our sleep but I consider it rude NOT to at least appear to listen.
Her moves are just fine. Who knew that I would enjoy watching a safety demo...again...and again...and...
There is absolutely nothing demeaning about the way she dances.
She follows the beat of the music very well and probably goes dancing on her days off. This is youth, folks.
If you don't like it you can look at the safety brochure or out the window.
An excellent find, and it's a way to engage with the passengers onboard.
I'm with you lucky on this, the safety demo on some airlines can be dry as cardboard and you'll either 1) falling asleep or 2) not paying attention.
Both deadly in an emergency situation even if you have your own internal checklist (for example first things I check whenever I get to my seat is where is the life jacket and...
An excellent find, and it's a way to engage with the passengers onboard.
I'm with you lucky on this, the safety demo on some airlines can be dry as cardboard and you'll either 1) falling asleep or 2) not paying attention.
Both deadly in an emergency situation even if you have your own internal checklist (for example first things I check whenever I get to my seat is where is the life jacket and a row count to the nearest back and forward exit)
Therefore I welcome vids and demos like this.
Or maybe some people would prefer our good friend "Pam Ann" to conduct the safety briefing? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbAO2z22bas ;)
@ Sean @ DullesJason -- Thanks for your comments, interesting. Let me start by saying that I'm generally much more for "traditional" service. I'll take the average United flight attendant over the average "wanna-be-glamour" Virgin America flight attendant any day of the week.
That being said, I think demonstrations like this actually increase safety. Let's be honest, we've all seen the safety demos on the legacies, and virtually no one pays attention. I'd think 10%...
@ Sean @ DullesJason -- Thanks for your comments, interesting. Let me start by saying that I'm generally much more for "traditional" service. I'll take the average United flight attendant over the average "wanna-be-glamour" Virgin America flight attendant any day of the week.
That being said, I think demonstrations like this actually increase safety. Let's be honest, we've all seen the safety demos on the legacies, and virtually no one pays attention. I'd think 10% is on the high side. The way to get people to watch is to make the video entertaining, in my opinion. Air New Zealand has done this (out of curiosity, do you consider that much different than this, or do you also think that's unprofessional?), as has Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic to a certain extent.
I think anything that actually makes passengers pay attention to the safety demos is a good thing. Besides, on the legacies I usually fly that have manual safety demonstrations, the flight attendants usually read through the script so quickly that it's inaudible.
This video has had 300,000 views today alone, for an airline that's unknown to most around the world. If nothing else, have to agree that this is amazing marketing.
While I agree with Lucky's point that this is a brilliant marketing move, bound to reap LOADS of additional revenue due to the attention, I have to almost side with Sean Mendis. At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, it's unprofessional for flight attendants, who are safety and service professionals, to dance around like showgirls. Shame on the airline's management for making them do it. I think the music being played is fine (and would get...
While I agree with Lucky's point that this is a brilliant marketing move, bound to reap LOADS of additional revenue due to the attention, I have to almost side with Sean Mendis. At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, it's unprofessional for flight attendants, who are safety and service professionals, to dance around like showgirls. Shame on the airline's management for making them do it. I think the music being played is fine (and would get passengers to pay attention), but not the dancing. I cringed in embarrassment for the poor girl. It's demeaning.
With all due respect, no airline that operates under a halfway decent CAA would even dream of doing something this juvenile. Wonderful for a Saturday Night Live skit or school play, but not for a safety briefing. Dysfunctional airlines are a byproduct of dysfunctional regulatory bodies.
It's not the "unprofessional conduct" that is imagined as why Cebu and the other Philippine carriers are banned from the EU. It's because the government Philippino govt does not have a responsible functioning civil air authority. I would rather travel on Cebu or Philipine Air than TAM, Kenyan, or Egypt Air.
It is unprofessional conduct like this why Philippine carriers are banned from operating in the EU and the CAAP was downgraded to an FAA Category II oversight compliance. What a disgrace.
We should be kind enough to avoid encouraging the grand moms and aunties on US carriers to dance like that.
Since the time I posted this, the YouTube video has had 100,000 hits. Can you talk about INCREDIBLE viral marketing?
That was hilarious. It must be a nice bonus for the FAs to get a round of applause each flight was well.
hahaha i think they autotuned the voice over message
LOVE This! This is FANTASTIC!
No kidding, christo. The Cebu FA is gorgeous! Damn unions.
I was surprised that the safety announcement was only offered in English. It's one of the Philippines' official languages, and is spoken by the majority of the population, but even Air Canada makes their announcements in English and French even though less than a quarter of the population speaks Canadian French on a daily basis.
This is genial!!!!
Now I'll be flying CEBU.
The main reason for "not suggesting flight attendants for US airlines do the same" is that it only works well when flight attendants are young and attractive.... Perhaps it is time to go back to the PSA era for those of us, passengers, who remember the good old days.