http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SBL6dgBBak
A unique way to keep bored and tired eyes locked on an
airline's cabin crew during an in-flight safety demo has become the
latest YouTube sensation from the Philippines.
Passengers travelling with budget carrier Cebu Pacific will soon
be given safety instructions via a toe-tapping flight safety dance
routine to the Lady Gaga tune "Just Dance".
A test flight for the new safety demo, filmed by a stunned
passenger, has gone viral on YouTube with over seven million hits
in a week.
At the end of the two minute clip, passengers give the
orange-clad cabin crew a round of applause -- perhaps not the usual
reaction to instructions about oxygen masks, lifejackets and how to
find the exits.
Candice Iyog, the airline's vice president for marketing, said
it will roll out the dance on selected domestic and international
flights later this month.
"We have always been a fun and very family-oriented company,"
she told AFP. "The reaction has been positive. The passengers did
pay attention."
The airline hired professional choreographers to teach hand
picked female cabin crew to help turn passengers' attention away
from the windows.
Cebu Pacific is not the first airline willing to use its staff
in unusual ways to keep the attention of its passengers.
In June 2009, Air New Zealand ran a safety video and ad campaign
featuring naked employees, their modesty protected only by body
paint and strategically placed seatbelts.
But the Cebu Pacific dance moves have not gone down well in the
Philippines.
Several legislators and the union for the country's flag carrier
Philippine Airlines reacted in fury to the safety demo, saying it
is demeaning to women.
The women's political party Gabriela said the routine is "a
cheap promotional gimmick" and branded the airline "a purveyor of
sexism and machismo."
And the Philippine Airlines cabin crew union said the video did
not help the union's campaign to lift a company policy that forces
female flight attendants to retire at the age of 40.
"This gender-insensitive packaging is a throwback to the
unenlightened past during the 50s and 60s when 'stewardesses' were
made to wear hot pants and mini-skirts to appeal to the dominantly
male business travellers," it said.
It is the second major Filipino dance clip to become a viral
YouTube hit, following a Michael Jackson-themed performance of
tangerine prison suit-clad prisoners which first appeared in
2007.
Cebu Pacific serves the Philippines and East Asian destinations
and is known for its cheap fares and token prizes awarded to
passengers at in-flight parlour games.
