It’s almost embarrassing that someone hadn’t come up with this sooner, so we’ll put it down to a dose of COVID creativity, that now we finally have an airline safety routine, put to “The Safety Dance,” by the perennial one-hit-wonders Men Without Hats.
The ’80s hit is surely to be back on the charts after some clever Alaska Airlines employees came up with this:
“At Alaska, we love safety so much, our employees made a music video about it. Watch the #AlaskaSafetyDance and find out how to safely get back out there in spring and summer 2021,” the airline wrote on YouTube.
According to the airline’s official blog, the people behind the masks are actual employees, including a few members from the Alaska Flight Attendant Drill team, which is a real thing.
Each employee was given videos of the choreography and asked to practice at home prior to the video shoot. “I’ve never danced before in my life,” said Michael, a ground service agent at Horizon Air. “I focused on working hard at rehearsal and doing my best to keep up. I kept practicing the moves in order to successfully pull this all off.”
The video was shot over two days, inside the Alaska Maintenance Hanger, which is also home to their Boeing cabin trainer. The video was directed by Warren Fu, who has worked with artists such as HAIM, Daft Punk, and The Weeknd. The dance moves were put together by Anna Matszewski, who is known for her work with Macklemore.
The point of the video is of course safety. The airline says the video features many of the 100+ ways they are focused on keeping everyone on board safe. They then took many of the main safety ideas and put them into the lyrics:
S-A-F-E-T-Y safety dance…
We can fly where you want to, we can leave your house behind, but if your friends don’t mask and why don’t they mask, well they won’t fly this airline…
You can fly if you want to ’cause we do safety right, we have air that’s clean and disinfectant machines zapping germs like an arcade space fight…
And we dance, do the dance, everybody wash some hands…
Do the dance, do the dance, while always wearing a mask…
Do the dance, do the dance, no seriously please wash your hands…
Do the dance, do the dance, HEPA filters cleaning commence…
Alaska’s safety dance, Alaska’s safety dance, Alaska’s safety dance…
The video also has pop-up information that supports its message, but your eyes will be on the dance moves and the employees, who are clearly having a great time.
And for fun, here’s the original video of “The Safety Dance” for your viewing pleasure.
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