Those safety videos
It’s not just the message, it’s the way they tell it, writes Thomas Bywater
From the outside looking in, the national obsession with the Air New Zealand safety videos is something that borders on a cult. As a recently relocated Pom living in the Land of the Long White Cloud, it’s just one of those things that fail to translate.
Like chocolate fish or Jandals (huh?) the excitement is something I can just about understand, but would have a hard time explaining to the uninitiated.
They’re reliably big news here. Yet on the other side of the world, most of the safety videos barely register. Air New Zealand’s recent expedition to Antarctica, which caused such controversy in Aotearoa, is one of those on its way to lie undisturbed in the NZ film archives, having untroubled public discourse beyond these shores.
However, like an apocryphal butterfly beating its wings, in the right conditions these fiveminute safety shorts can lead to a twitter storm that engulfs the globe.
The first time I saw an Air New Zealand safety video, it was the Sir Peter Jackson Special, which replaced flight crew with Tolkien’s creatures in the brace position.
Fresh from basking in the glow of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, it was an easy point of reference for flyers from around the world. Later, the much-maligned Men in Black crossover with the All Blacks became a personal favourite of mine.
The script to most of these videos reads like a panicked grasp for small talk by someone meeting a New Zealander for the first time. Which is a scene that must be familiar to any Kiwi who’s attended a house party abroad: “Oh yes, you guys like rugby … and elves, right?”
But then that’s the magic of this medium on an international Kiwi carrier, it’s about the sometimes awkward meeting of cultures.
It’s less bowing to stereotypes and more playing to what people know before dropping them in the deep end of the waiariki. And if the rest of the world wants to imagine a nation of rugby players in picturesque Middle-earth, you’re going to own it.
The videos blur boundaries between a clever bit of PR by an international airline and the forming of New Zealand’s national myth. For a little bit of propaganda hidden in a five-minute info video, it travels a long way.
Last year New Zealand’s national carrier ferried 15.95 million passengers around the world.
We presume plenty of these seats are occupied by international passengers (not even the most jetset Jafa could clock up all those air miles).
If all those passengers diligently sit through the pre-flight safety flick — as you are obliged to do — this makes the latest safety video one of the most significant on-screen events since Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
Where Air New Zealand led, others have followed.
From humourless computer-rendered Lufthansa videos to the inexplicable Lego brick production for Turkish Airlines, global carriers are opting in for a touch of silver-screen magic.
Back in the UK, British Airways phoned up the luvvies, casting Michael Caine and Joanna Lumley to help find the exits in an emergency.
Although some safety videos are destined to be more memorable than others, Air New Zealand’s have changed air travel forever.