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New British Airways safety video launched

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After three years of manual demonstrations, British Airways is finally bringing back their safety video.

During covid, additional steps were required when wearing face masks and using oxygen masks in an emergency. This meant that the previous safety video could not be used and cabin crew had to give manual instructions.

Now that on-board face masks are no longer required, BA is returning to pre-recorded safety videos. The new video features employees from across the airline as well as some more recognisable faces, such as Emma Raducanu, Ncuti Gatwa and, oddly, Robert Peston.

New British Airways safety video

It replaces the previous Chabuddy G safety videos which were a bit like Marmite …..

Click the image above to be taken to YouTube to watch.

The video clocks in at just a hair over five minutes, but it is well worth watching. As an avowed hater of the previous Chabuddy G videos, which I thought were far too try hard, this feels much more authentic. I like how snappy it is, with clever editing to keep things moving.

Unlike the old video, which relied on its cast of A-listers for relevance, this video tries to be interesting in its own right, and largely succeeds. Although I do feel for poor Tom Kerridge, who didn’t get the sexiest lines to read ….

The video will launch on flights from 1st May. A second version of this video will follow shortly afterwards, featuring the staff in the new uniforms unveiled in January.

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Comments (91)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Budva says:
    18 Apr18 April 07:37

    Far too long. Far to try-hard in showing their diverse credentials. It seems that you tick the diversity box if you show black people. But how many Chinese or South Asian people are in this video? Does the racial mix reflect that of the UK or South London or anywhere else? At least the Chabuddy G ones were funny the first couple of times you saw them

    • Davey11 says:
      18 Apr18 April 07:51

      Morning Suella!

      • Budva says:
        18 Apr18 April 08:15

        Did you realise I’m Suella from the comment that the video is too long, unreflective of the uk population or the lack of diversity in the video?

    • David Cliff says:
      18 Apr18 April 08:38

      I agree with you 100% 👍

    • Bagoly says:
      18 Apr18 April 09:55

      Emma Raducanu covers both Chinese and South-East Europe 🙂

      But seriously, diversity success doesn’t mean everything should have the same proportions of populations: people whose c1600 ancestors were predominantly from South Asia are more prominent in English cricket and top government posts; those from Africa in football.

  • paul says:
    18 Apr18 April 08:30

    ANYTHING has to be better than the Virgin safety vid.

    • Rhys says:
      18 Apr18 April 08:33

      I actually like that one! New one coming, though.

    • Rob says:
      18 Apr18 April 09:02

      I like it!

    • Doommonger says:
      18 Apr18 April 12:16

      Nothing wrong with the Virgin safety cartoon, I absolutely love it. I fear though that the new safety video be will be like its current television ad…. trying to be all things to all men/women/anything in between.

      Doomster

    • Ironside says:
      18 Apr18 April 13:36

      I really liked the Virgin video. Really grabbed my attention and actually made me want to watch it. Mind you, I felt the same way about the BA Chabuddy G version. And even the most entertaining videos will get stale after a few repeats.

      What’s the solution? Maybe mix things up. Randomise the segments. Possibly some moderate violence or gratuitous nudity. Light swearing. Cabin crew allowed to shout “OI! SHUT IT!” in a cockney accent at occasional intervals. Yep, the next BA video should definitely be directed by Matthew Vaughn. Sor’ed.

    • AL says:
      18 Apr18 April 16:26

      The VS safety video is an art (and, er, graft…). I like the modifications for the A351, too. But the new one will be ace, when it lands.

  • James C says:
    18 Apr18 April 08:30

    Really looking forward to when the tend for novelty safety videos goes full circle and we get back to the short factual safety videos of the late 90s/ early 00s. How ever will the crew on a short haul flight manage to convey the essential safety information in a manual demonstration without the assistance of a gable of celebrities, actors and London centric locations…oh yes as they have managed for the last 3 years!!

  • WaynedP says:
    18 Apr18 April 08:37

    Considering the challenge it faces of being an instructional video in an age when many people consider that they know it all already, I didn’t think it was too bad, right up to the point where it overleapt the line and patronisingly transgressed into delivering “life advice”.

    If I had followed the injunction “don’t change” I would still be an aggressive, bigoted, brainwashed, nationalistic advocate of Apartheid, convinced that it was a legitimate form of eugenically justifiable separate development rather than a form of racial exploitation.

  • Steve in Croydon says:
    18 Apr18 April 10:03

    Just back from six weeks in Australia. The Qantas 2020 safety video celebrating 100 years of the company is excellent and very well made. There’s an extended 8 minutes version on YouTube.

  • Doommonger says:
    18 Apr18 April 10:26

    Far too long, The best bit however, is undoubtedly is the ending and what BA really think of its customers. We are all sheep to them. BAAAAAAA!

    Doomster

  • FEMW says:
    18 Apr18 April 10:36

    It’s a pity there are no captions for the deaf and hard of hearing. I’m deaf and reliant on captions and very poor of BA to release a video with no captions.

    • Marc says:
      18 Apr18 April 10:47

      My understanding is there will be captions when shown on the plane. Not sure why they haven’t added captions here via the YouTube feature though.

  • Londonsteve says:
    18 Apr18 April 11:10

    The previous version was actually less cringeworthy, at least everyone could tell it was an attempt at comedy and it was actually quite funny the first few times you saw it. This comes across as ultra try-hard, mildly patronising and guilty of racial stereotypes even though it sets out to do the opposite. Why does the elderly British couple have to feature reading tabloids in a stripy deckchair? Methinks that’ll offend a significant part of BA’s core customer base, but perhaps they’re so used to being publicly belittled in the modern age they won’t even notice. I pine for the smartly designed information videos of the past involving a small cast of anonymous characters. I’d even prefer an animated version to this, that’s far less contentious. This is trying to be an advert for BA, for the UK and to make a political statement all at the same time.

    • Rob says:
      18 Apr18 April 11:21

      We have plenty of pension-age readers here and none have posted that they are annoyed by it, in the same way that none of our U25 readers has complained about being portrayed as a group that won’t remove their headphones for a safety briefing and none of our banker readers have complained about being stereotyped as people always trying to work on the plane.

      What we have are people posting ON BEHALF of other groups (who haven’t actually asked for any help or support) and no-one posting that they themselves are offended on behalf of their group.

      • vlcnc says:
        18 Apr18 April 11:44

        Well said.

      • Londonsteve says:
        18 Apr18 April 12:18

        Perhaps I should have been more brief. I don’t like it as a tool for pre-flight briefing, although perhaps as a product of a film school it has a lot of merit. I preferred the previous version. An airline, like any business, should refrain from engaging in politics. Lest anyone accuse me of something I’m not, I’m a pro Remain, left of centre social democrat. For me it’s a turn off.

    • DaveJ says:
      18 Apr18 April 16:27

      “ Methinks that’ll offend a significant part of BA’s core customer base,”

      Then they need to get a grip

    • Jack says:
      18 Apr18 April 16:32

      if this offends people then frankly those who are offended need to get a grip and fast. It is not racist whatsoever it delivers the key messages in a unique way

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