PAL infotainment soars high with ‘teleserye’ flight safety video
In-flight safety videos, despite their importance, are often a bore, especially for frequent flyers. Routinary and repetitive, they usually involve cabin crew demonstrating safety gestures in a mandatory video shown on the aircraft entertainment screen.
That is why, in a bid to make these safety briefings more alluring, Philippine Airlines (PAL) has rolled out a new safety video that taps into Filipinos’ innate fondness for drama and the familiar tropes of classic soap operas.
Released online on Dec. 31, the six-minute production leans heavily into the cliches that have long defined Filipino teleseryes: unwanted marriages, rich-poor love triangles and the tension of last-minute reversals at the altar.
“What do you need to do to keep your love safe?” asks PAL in its online release of the video.
PAL’s dramatized safety video titled “Care that comes from the heart” centers on Diego and Luisa, both portrayed as wealthy and set to marry at the insistence of Luisa’s father. Pressured by her family, Luisa is pushed into a union she does not want.
The plot reaches its peak when commoner Anton—Luisa’s true love—interrupts the ceremony mid-vows. Luisa bolts down the aisle, abandoning her wealthy groom to flee with her simpler, farm boy suitor.
Going viral
One of the video’s most inventive moments comes when PAL transforms the wedding aisle at Daraga Church in Albay, into an aircraft aisle, using it to demonstrate the location of emergency exits. As Anton calls to halt the wedding, oxygen masks drop in front of the stunned guests.
It was a hit. Less than a week after its release, the video has already garnered traction well beyond the cabin, to the point where more people may have watched it online than on the runway. As of this writing, the video has racked up 1.1 million views on Facebook and nearly 150,000 views on YouTube.
In a Facebook post, Film Development Council of the Philippines chair and CEO Jose Javier Reyes tips his hat to the airline, writing, “ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINE… AIRLINES! Mabuhay!!”
Television and film director Mark Reyes likewise praises the production.
“As a director of numerous ‘Pinoy’ telenovelas, I love how PAL integrated the classic soap tropes with the key safety features without undermining its importance,” he says.
The video even prompted some viewers to draw comparisons between how PAL and the Department of Tourism (DOT) market the Philippines. In recent weeks, the DOT has come under scrutiny for allegedly promoting its chief, Secretary Christina Frasco, in a self-serving manner.
“Let’s close the year with the BEST in-flight safety video ever! Sure to capture the attention of every passenger the first few times they see it on board,” author Cathy Sanchez Babao writes. “The DOT can learn from your marketing people and maybe even engage the same ad agency.”
“Filipino audiences connect through story, emotion and shared cultural language, so we embraced that truth. The ‘Safetynovela’ reflects our commitment to elevating even the most functional parts of the journey,” says Alvin Miranda, vice president for marketing at PAL.
Promoting tourism
The release marks a sharp departure from PAL’s previous safety video, launched eight years ago, which heavily featured Philippine tourist destinations. Still, the new version does not entirely abandon that approach, featuring locations, such as Palawan, Bohol, Boracay, Pangasinan, Malcapuya Island and Hacienda Rosalia in Negros Occidental.
It also places PAL alongside a growing list of airlines that have injected creativity into safety briefings. Among the most notable is Qatar Airways’ video directed by Hollywood filmmaker Tim Story and starring comedian Kevin Hart.
PAL began rolling out the new safety video this January and has shown it aboard its newest aircraft, the Airbus A350-1000, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.
For an airline that brands itself as the “Heart of the Filipino,” PAL appears to know exactly how to capture Filipino hearts. And this time, their attention too.
