Qantas Airways is celebrating its 100th anniversary with some classic throwback action.
First up is this new in-flight safety video featuring ‘80s mullets, ‘70s moustaches, 1940s flying boats and 1920s propeller aircraft.
The safety video briefing features modern-day Qantas crew members in carefully recreated historical settings onboard aircraft and in airport terminals.
Qantas has also put together an exhibition showcasing the past, present and future of the airline, with artifacts, life-sized replicas and interactive installations.
The exhibition will be touring Australia for the next year, but here are a couple of highlights that seem pretty cool.
This is a replica of a Qantas 747 First Class Lounge from the 1970s.
Qantas original B747 1970s Lounge
And this is one of the scrapbooks that belonged to Qantas co-founder Fergus McMaster.
Air New Zealand has a new in-flight safety video – Air All Blacks – which celebrates and supports the All Blacks rugby team. And, of course, shares important in-flight safety information.
Team members and staff, as well as a celebrity or two, are featured alongside crew members in the video, which takes place in the headquarters of an imaginary new airline – Air All Blacks – right when ideas for the airline’s first safety video are being discussed.
The release of Air All Blacks marks the ten-year anniversary of the airline’s groundbreaking and unique take on safety videos.
Spider-Man weaves through
United Airlines’ newest safety video
Spider-Man poses with United Airlines employees who appear in the new safety demonstration video – courtesy United Airlines
F
For a story on USA TODAY, I was invited to be on set during part of the filming for United Airlines’ new safety demonstration video featuring Spider-Man – and friends.
Here’s the story, And the video.
“Spider-Man: Far From Home” won’t be in movie theaters until
July 2 but, starting today, fans of the webbed wonder (and of hidden film references
known as Easter eggs) will be able to see Spider-Man in action in United Airlines’ newest inflight safety demonstration video.
United
Airlines, Sony and Marvel worked together to weave the Federal Aviation Administration’s
required safety instructions into a fast-paced, short (4:44) film starring
Spider-Man, a trio of villains, and some of Spider-Man’s friends.
“We’ve kept the worlds of Spider-Man and United safety
separate, but together,” said Daniel Cuellar, Director of Global Advertising
for United, “Crew members, as always, are doing the demos and giving
instructions, but there’s an underlying fun Spider-Man aspect to it.”
And some cool
special effects.
“That’s the benefit of partnering with Sony,” said United’s Vice President of Marketing,
Mark Krolick. “We were able to make this safety video with movie
theater-style production and effects. It’s not something we usually have the
opportunity to do and I think our customers will appreciate the higher production
value.”
And, United hopes, pay attention in a world where airlines
try to out-do each other with engaging safety videos.
“There is
plenty of evidence that learning is more effective when there is play and fun
involved, and these videos follow a trend of gamification and entertainment of
information,” said Sabrina Habib, a professor of Visual Communications at the
University of South Carolina.
Spoiler alert: here’s the plot of
United’s new Spider-Man-themed safety video
On the set during filming of the United Airlines new safety video. Photo Harriet Baskas
In United’s
new safety video, villains cause trouble at the corner store owned by Mr.
Delmar (played by Hemky Madera). Spider-Man happens to be nearby and springs
into action. He chases the goons into a movie theater, to a park fountain, and down
a dark alley; captures them all; and leaves them neatly wrapped up in a web
with a handwritten note for the authorities that says “All Yours! Gotta Fly.
Spider-Man.”
If you pay attention,
you’ll notice a framed photo of the late comic book writer and Marvel super
hero creator Stan Lee in the store. That’s Spider-Man movie character Eugene
“Flash” Thompson (played by Toni Revolori) helping to demonstrate safety
instructions about putting electronic devices into airplane mode.
And, while you
may not know who they are, some of the extras in the video are people who bid
their MileagePlus miles for a chance to be part of the project.
There’s more:
Spider-Man’s
alter ego, Peter Parker, has a best friend, Ned (played by Jacob Batalon) who is
in-line outside a movie theater when Spider-Man streaks by chasing a goon into
the theater. They race by a man walking down the sidewalk, played by none other
than United Airlines’ CEO Oscar Munoz.
“Wow, that must be
some good movie,” says man-on-the street Munoz
“Yeah, I hear the
best friend’s hilarious,” replies Ned.
During filming of the street scene outside the classic
Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles this past January, Munoz was having fun
bantering with the production crew and was patient and good-natured about the
multiple takes.
Off the set, there was an upcoming earnings report
and the impact the partial government shutdown was having on the airline
industry to think about, but Munoz felt taking time to do this safety video
cameo was important.
Besides being
fun for him to do, “It brings an awareness that while United is incredibly serious
about issues of safety and operational reliability,” said Munoz, “Were are
the also the ‘The Friendly Skies’ and we want to be friendly and fun. I think
this gives us that narrative.”
United CEO Oscar Munoz, Spider-Man and Jacob Batalon (‘Ned’). Photo_Harriet Baskas
How did United
Airlines rope Spider-Man into a safety video appearance?
United is not only an official airline sponsor for the new
Spider-Man movie; one of its airplanes has a cameo in the film.
In “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” Peter Parker and his high
school classmates go on a class trip to Europe, stopping in London, Venice, Prague
and a few other places. United flew a 777-200, retrofitted with the Polaris business
cabin, to London for a week of shooting.
“There are lots of different scenes of the kids going over
and coming back.” said United’s global advertising director Daniel Cuellar,
“Peter Parker has one very rich friend who’s flying in Polaris while everyone
else is flying in economy. So there’s lots of great footage of the aircraft.
And when the kids come home from Europe, they filmed in Newark Airport as
well.”
Other tie-ins
United’s “Spider-Man:
Far From Home” tie-in goes beyond the safety video and the aircraft cameo in
the film.
Starting in
June, travelers in United’s Polaris business class will get a Spider-Man-themed
amenity kit, in red or blue, which includes a Spidey-branded eye mask and
socks, alongside tissues and other branded personal care items.
The airline is
also inviting MileagePlus members to bid award miles
for a chance to attend the “Spider-Man: Far from Home” premiere in Los Angeles
on June 26 or to use award miles to attend pre-release screenings in seven of
the airline’s hub cities.
Fans of LEGOs and entertaining airline in-flight safety videos have a treat in store with the new Turkish Airlines offering.
Turkish Airlines will start running a new inflight safety video on March 1 that builds on the carrier’s partnership with the LEGO movie franchise.
The new safety video features characters from the new Warner Bros. production, The LEGO Movie 2.
In August 2018, Turkish Airlines debuted a video starring characters from the first LEGO movie. That video got 20 million views in just one month and won a Clio Entertainment Award.
So why not do it again?
This second video features Emmet, Lucy and others from the cast of “The LEGO Movie 2” in starring roles, with LEGO Batman starring as director of the inflight film.
Turkish Airlines reports that filming of the “The LEGO Movie 2” safety video took close to 1000 hours over four months and that filming locations included five different countries, including Turkey, the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia.
LEGO-wise, the new Turkish Airlines safety video features 24,000 LEGO minifigures in the crowd for the Super Hero Cape Town match. Overall, 20,330,795 LEGO bricks were needed to build all the locations in the new video. That’s ten times the number of bricks used in the first LEGO-themed safety video:
Have an opinion on which Turkish Airlines LEGO safety video is better?
Air New Zealand’s newest inflight safety video is out and this one you can dance to.
Dubbed “Kiwi Safety,” the video has a cast of 600 and stars Kiwi actor Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Deadpool2), local musicians Kings, Theia and Randa, load of community groups and, of course, airline employees.
The music? “It’s Tricky” by RUN-DMC and “In the Neighbourhood” by Sisters Underground
And because they’re just so darn fun, here are some ANZ safety videos from the past.
