Airline’s Unusual PR Effort: Effective, Economical, and Innovative

Finnair flight attendants turned into entertainers as they took over the aisles on Wednesday’s overnight Helsinki to Delhi flight to celebrate India’s Republic Day, celebrated annually on January 26.

Passengers on Flight 21 were treated to a surprise Bollywood style dance performed by the Finnair crew uploaded to the airline’s YouTube channel.

Starlight Communication deems this as an extraordinary public relations effort that generated intended publicity and put Finnair under a positive limelight.

“It was effective, economical, and innovative,” says Farah Lalani, PR & Media Editor at Starlight Communication.

While Finnair’s effort is definitely loud, it isn’t the first airline to introduce dancing flight attendants. A series of “dancing flight attendants” videos have hit the web in recent years. Previously, Cebu Pacific received some criticism after they made waves with their dancing safety demonstrations. The opposing groups said that that stereotyping of flight attendants as entertainers has a negative and a sexist impact in the minds of the public. Although Cebu Pacific received some heat for their safety demonstrations, the positive response far exceeded the negativity.

“Over ten million YouTube viewers on dancing flight attendant videos should be reason enough to continue making flights more fun and less uptight,” says Lalani. “While every publicity effort will inevitably attract some opposition, such ground breaking PR efforts should be encouraged.”