a woman standing in a room with a blue and white circle

United Airlines has debuted a new safety video–its first in many years–with a theme of “safety in motion.”

New Safety Video With “Safety In Motion” Theme On United Airlines

Over the summer, a new safety video will roll out across the United network, a video that has been in the making for nearly a year and features 17 United employees on a life-sized, airplane-inspired sequential reaction machine. Also known as a Rube Goldberg machine, the video is meant to mesmerize you with the important safety info seeping in through osmosis.

Key parts of the new safety video:

  • 171 customized versions of the safety video were created to accommodate United’s 8 different aircraft types, 20 various seat configurations on those aircraft and 18 languages
  • Ten months in the making – Creative development on the new video began in June 2023; filming took place in October 2023 and then the team spent the next five months on edits and translations before the March 2023 FAA approval
  • 12 individual contraptions the ball passes through in the machine
  • 17 employees from across the airline, including flight attendants, pilots, customer service agents, ramp service, tech operations, the network operations center and reservations
  • More than 1,000 real dominoes
  • A 100-year old song, “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin, that’s been a consistent feature in United safety videos over the years

Maggie Schmerin, United’s Chief Advertising Officer, explains the ball concept is about the idea of how much of the travel experience is connected:

“The safest safety video is one that passengers actively watch. Our creative concept was inspired by the idea of connection and the many moments of any given day that our employee work groups have to connect to be able to get thousands of flights off the ground and to their destinations safely. We worked across the airline to ensure our new safety video clearly and succinctly communicates critical information in a way passengers can’t help but watch – no matter their age, background or experience traveling.”

That ball nicely becomes the United globe logo at the conclusion of the video.

My Thoughts

The new safety video certainly captured my attention: you cannot help but watch that ball rolling and I could not take my eyes off it. I also recognized one of the flight attendants, who worked my flight from Seattle to Los Angeles just a couple of weeks ago. Some have complained the ball is distracting from the safety message and I tend to agree, though I think the message still gets out (I think the biggest message, however, is to LEAVE ALL CARRY-ON ITEMS BEHIND in case of emergency).

As I’ve said in the context of other airline safety videos, United has a robust and far-reaching international route map and while that was a prominent feature of the previous two safety videos (and thus, perhaps United felt a change of emphasis was warranted), I always like it when safety videos highlight both the onboard product and route map: this video does neither.

I think the new safety video is just fine, gets the job done, and I love that it includes Gerswhin’s Rhapsody In Blue, but is it my favorite United safety video? Nah. I still like this one…

And even this old classic:

Finally, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the latest safety video:

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