Here come the Men In Black
August 12, 2015 7:15 PM   Subscribe

Air New Zealand's latest air safety video is one for the rugby fans, featuring many current All Blacks riffing off the original Men in Black video. prev.
posted by wilful (22 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh man, I have absolutely no reason in my life currently to fly Air New Zealand, but their videos make me want to find some excuses to fly them.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:21 PM on August 12, 2015


Watching forwards wearing suits makes me laugh. Trying to think of the appropriate analogy. Getting a a decent tailor when you've got a 20" neck must be very difficult.
posted by wilful at 7:26 PM on August 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


A decent tailor would not be even slightly fazed. Savile Row could dress an elephant.
posted by Devonian at 7:33 PM on August 12, 2015 [9 favorites]


I was walking past a park in Chicago today and overheard somebody shouting at a bunch of kids, "No, we're not playing football today, we're playing RUGBY!"
posted by lagomorphius at 8:47 PM on August 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


lagomorphius, Soldier Field, 5 September, I'd be there if I could.
posted by wilful at 8:49 PM on August 12, 2015


Man, I love that he was in this, but Rip Torn is looking his age these days. Of course the first film came out almost twenty yea-- almost twenty years ag---

One moment.

*holds flashy thing up in front of face, presses the button*

-- only a few days ago!
posted by Mrs. Davros at 9:57 PM on August 12, 2015 [5 favorites]


This was so much fun!
posted by MissySedai at 10:00 PM on August 12, 2015


I tell ya. Between the freaking flag choices and this, it's enough to make a man want to move to Australia. Or something.
posted by maupuia at 11:39 PM on August 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


I hate these things. If they want me to take air safety seriously, don't make stupid jokey videos about it. Plus they're really long, just show me where the exits are and get the plane going. Whenever I fly air nz (which isn't so often these days) I make a childish point of putting my headphones in and ignoring until they're done. Whereas I so appreciate the short, to the point version done on the cheap European airlines over here I always at least pretend to listen despite having heard the exact same thing several times before.
posted by shelleycat at 12:56 AM on August 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I'm so over these. Fun to watch once, tedious in the extreme if you're flying domestically and have to sit through them more than once or twice. Fully expect John Key to turn up in one soon (no doubt if we win the World Cup he'll get himself into an All Blacks one). I find myself starting to agree with Bob Jones, and that is not pleasant. (And if I wanted to hear Slice of Heaven at high volume for the 10,000th time I'd have it on my iPod, I don't need it blasted through the cabin when we land).
posted by Pink Frost at 1:42 AM on August 13, 2015


It does have a feeling of having a braver Murray Hewitt behind it.
posted by rongorongo at 2:25 AM on August 13, 2015


It's not as if they couldn't offer a choice of flight safety briefings via the IFE, with their preferred one rolling if you can't be bothered to press the button. You could pre-register your preference when you book... Heck, one could be gamified - "you think you know this stuff backwards? Let's find out". Free packet of mints if you win. Ten hours of Air Crash Confidential if you don't.
posted by Devonian at 5:39 AM on August 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


As someone who flies Air NZ mostly twice a month: fucking fuck I hate these fucking twee fucking bullshit fucking patronising fucking aargh shit fuck....

Look if the competition weren't utterly hopeless at customer service and reliability I would switch. As it is, these and their predecessors make me cringe. And I hate fake American accents in local hip-hop. And the casual sexism, and the fetishism of rugby, and the general lowbrow pandering. We're all going to die anyway, I had to get up at 5 this morning, why the fuck must you add to my torment like this. My fervent wish is that the smug shits who came up with this die in a fire as they come to pick up the marketing awards at the ceremony that was always the real audience for these crass intrusions into my brain.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:40 AM on August 13, 2015 [6 favorites]


Honest question: Have there been any studies about how these videos are more effective than their dull predecessors (or effective at all) in actually informing individuals about what to do in an emergency?
posted by knownassociate at 6:07 AM on August 13, 2015


Honest question: Have there been any studies about how these videos are more effective than their dull predecessors (or effective at all) in actually informing individuals about what to do in an emergency?

A related question is "How could the standard safety briefing be improved so as to help survive an actual emergency?" - contrast the standard briefing with this set of tips on how to survive a plane crash - for example.

I'm not claiming there is an easy answer to that (that does not scare the shit out of people); and I can appreciate how NZ Air are trying to overcome the inattention of passengers who've seen the same material before. However their video is a full 5 minutes - and does not event seem to be aircraft specific. Is that the best they can do?
posted by rongorongo at 7:31 AM on August 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


Well that's just excellent (and captioned, yay!).
posted by humph at 9:20 AM on August 13, 2015


No no no no no.

As someone who travels a reasonable amount, I want the shortest possible safety video. I just saw Virgin America's for the second and third time (I saw it online first) and let me tell you, it's long and it's just not entertaining the third time.

And I really don't think it gets the message across because you're not really thinking about jet safety but the "cool" dancing and music.

I actually take the time during the safety video to look around the cabin, figure out where the exits and bathrooms are, how I'd get around if the lights went out, that sort of thing. I can't do that if there's a rock music video blaring in my ear.

DO NOT WANT.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 2:10 PM on August 13, 2015


(rongorongo's link on how to survive a plane crash is pretty amazing!)
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 2:13 PM on August 13, 2015


Have there been any studies about how these videos are more effective than their dull predecessors (or effective at all) in actually informing individuals about what to do in an emergency?

I strongly doubt it -- it's clear to me that it's about furthering Air NZ's brand. Someone is convinced it's effective at that.

For grumpy frequent travellers like me, it's a blight on an otherwise high quality service.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:15 PM on August 13, 2015


Then there's Priscilla Airlines in Israel.
posted by oceanjesse at 2:21 PM on August 13, 2015


Oh man, I have absolutely no reason in my life currently to fly Air New Zealand,

A trip to NZ not enough?
posted by Mezentian at 3:32 AM on August 14, 2015


As someone who flies Air NZ mostly twice a month

1% problems?

(I kid, little country, big mountains, and I agree, but... man, if you flew Qantas that often... I think they are using the same video cassettes from the Ansett era).
posted by Mezentian at 3:34 AM on August 14, 2015


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