I’m convinced one of the telltale signs of fresh, brilliant work is seeing it, slapping yourself on the forehead and saying, “Of course! That’s genius! Why hasn’t anyone else done that?” And why is it so often the smaller, more underdog brands who look at a project from a completely new and wonderful perspective with a result that leaves the rest of us saying, “Man, I wish I’d done that!”
Such is the case with this fantastic piece from UK airline Thomson who took something as worn and tired as the pre-flight safety film and made it so engaging it’s impossible not to watch it from beginning to end. You can actually envision people in Britain asking the flight attendants to replay the film, or booking a flight just so they can see it again. Maybe it’s perspective. Maybe it’s a fearlessness, or a “what do we have to lose” mentality. Whatever it is, thank God for it.
Clearly, any airline could have done this. But how many of the majors – American,Delta, United, Continental – would cast a bunch of five-year-old flight attendants and leave the teaching to them? With all respect to American’s classic tagline, this too, is something special in the air.
