Qantas safety video makes going down an emergency slide fun, but is it?

A small number of airlines are beginning to see some merit in Air New Zealand jazzing up its in-flight safety video, garnering attention far and wide. Qantas, for one. Its latest production takes the safety instructions outside the airplane in what the airline must be thinking a wise advertising move to also promote Australia as a tourist destination at the same time. Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

But taking the instructions out of its actual context may not be as effective since the environment does affect how one could react in an emergency. So you might say, few passengers if any really watch a safety vide anyway. Nonetheless, if it must be done, it has to be done right.

It is well and good to demonstrate the use of an oxygen mask at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, but it can be quite a different story within the confine of a cabin. The “connect” be lost. So too a brace position demonstration during a yoga class on Hamilton Island and a life-jacket demonstration at Bondi Icebergs.

Counting rows to the exit on a Yarra Valley winery? OK, point made, never mind the location. But going down an emergency slide at Josephine Falls in Queensland? It all looks like fun, but when the need arises, it isn’t going to be anywhere as thrilling!

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