I love the rush along the runway, the sudden awareness there’s no ground beneath, the sense that you’re going somewhere…
I don’t enjoy the safety briefing. It’s not only boring, it’s, well, non-human.
For some reason, when organisations have to speak to everyone, they adopt a particularly pernicious form of officialese. Maybe they think they’re being accessible and inoffensive. But really they’re being obtuse.
Not Virgin America, though. Their safety video is entertaining and well-thought-through. It’s a fantastic example of taking an everyday message one step further, and creating a genuine brand experience.
The design and animation is outstanding, and so is the writing. They’ve checked all the appropriate message delivery boxes, but shown that it can be done in a thoroughly human way.
Call me a heartless mongrel, but I’m enjoying the Hollywood writers’ strike.
Not because the entire film and TV industry in Hollywood has ground to a halt, and not because writers are striking instead of doing the work they love…
…but because they’re communicating their message in such entertaining ways.
Picketing doesn’t make much of a difference. Until the Producers get transparent and tell the same story to writers as to their shareholders, there’s no way forward. Without trust, further negotiations are pointless.
But in the meantime, at least there’s some entertaining viewing on hand.
I managed to score an invite to Seesmic, and recorded a video about why online video only makes what we do so much more important. Here it is:
This post is brought to you by the letters W G and A. Power to the writers!
Update: Shel Israel is thinking along the same lines.