Malaysia Airlines is the latest airline to unveil a new safety video, and I don’t think the format will surprise anyone (thanks to Pierre for flagging this)…
New Malaysia Airlines safety video celebrates Malaysia
Malaysia Airlines has just unveiled its new safety video, “where essential safety meets the essence of Malaysia.” The latest video is intended to showcase the beauty of Malaysia while delivering vital safety instructions.
This new video comes ahead of Visit Malaysia Year 2026, and the video is intended to “invite the world to discover our rich culture, heritage, and iconic destinations, right from your seat on board Malaysia Airlines.”
As a point of comparison, below you can find Malaysia Airlines’ previous safety video, which was introduced in 2022. It was perhaps the carrier’s most controversial safety video ever, described as allowing guests to “sing and dance along,” and the video was produced in collaboration with Enfiniti.
While I certainly give the previous safety video credit for being creative, I imagine there was a high level of diminishing return when it comes to enjoyment of the video, especially for frequent flyers.
When everyone is “creative,” no one is creative
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. We’ve gotten to the point where default safety video format includes roaming around a country, with no signs of an aircraft anywhere. I thought this concept was creative when we first saw it introduced, but in the meantime, it’s the most common type of safety video.
Like, when an airline introduces a new safety video, my first thought is “okay, let’s see how they choose to roam around their home country with no signs of an aircraft.” When airlines come up with the concepts for the new safety videos, I really wonder how those conversations go:
- Does someone present these country-roaming, abstract safety videos as something creative that they came up with, and they get a big round of applause for their ingenuinety?
- Or do they say “meh, you know what, everyone else is doing this, we should probably do it as well?”
With so many airlines having taken this approach, I’ve increasingly become a fan of airlines just doing the basics, and showing the safety instructions on a plane. Last year we saw Emirates unveil its new “no-nonsense” safety video, and I really like it. How nice to just stick with the basics. When everyone else tries to be different, there’s something nice about just being the same.
Bottom line
Malaysia Airlines is the latest carrier to introduce a new safety video, and it’s exactly what you’d expect. There’s no plane in sight, and the safety video consists of instructions being shown abstractly in scenery around Malaysia.
What do you make of Malaysia Airlines’ new safety video?
