The truth about the Cebu Pacific Airlines dancing flight attendants


Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen. That “viral” video with flight attendants dancing to Lady Gaga? It’s a fake.

The dance moves are real, and the plane is real, but anyone who thinks this was a bona fide in-flight safety announcement — sorry to burst your bubble.

Doubts about the authenticity of this clip, which has been seen by more than five million Gaga fans so far, were raised in the comments of the Window Seat on Oct. 2. They were echoed this morning in a post by the travel technology blog Tnooz, which accused the airline of pulling a “PR stunt.” (Note: There are several copies of the clip online, which has further deepened suspicions about its origins.)

The airline released a statement about the video in which it assured passengers, “We do not compromise safety in anything we do and it will remain our primary concern.” Apparently, some viewers thought the flight attendants were having too much fun.

You don’t have to be press critic to know this was a manufactured event.

And you’d know it within the first few seconds of viewing this video. The plane is at cruising altitude. Those announcement have to be made before the plane takes off, folks.

Even in the Philippines, where Cebu Pacific is based.

In fact, there’s no excuse for anyone who fell for this video after Oct. 1, when the U.K. Telegraph reported that the video was part of marketing “experiment” by the airline. Here’s what Candice Iyog, vice president of marketing at the carrier, told the newspaper:

This was an experiment that we hope to repeat and also a chance to showcase the talent of some of our cabin crew staff. The performance took place while the plane was at cruising altitude, with the cabin crew giving a normal safety demonstration before take-off.

None of this should take away from the entertainment value of the video, which, even if you think Lady Gaga sucks, is relatively high. Critics notwithstanding.

But is it a real viral video, like Southwest’s rapping flight attendant?

I dunno. Now I’m not even sure if that one was real, come to think of it.

  • Dan Montoya

    Interesting article. It caught my attention. I did see a video of a former flight attendant who is dancing in a video and its very nice . She is a model named Lavender.
    It is here :
    http://www.youtube.com/LavenderParadise

  • http://www.happyhotelier.com/ Happy Hotelier

    Have you seen the GAAP rap, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P2-vEtXSug&NR=1 by the South West flight attendant? They sure know how to use social media:-)

  • Rich

    Last time I made a few flights on Cebu Pacific, each time they refused to turn off the background music that plays as you board, while in flight! They only had about 3 songs which repeated on a loop, and it almost drove me mad and prevented me from reading.

    Anyone know if this “policy” is still in effect?

  • JMN

    I love flying Southwest, & I love their safety announcements. My guest is that this video is staged; passengers are still walking down the aisles & the aircraft door is open.

  • http://www.gokudat.com Sunduvan

    I used Cebu Pacific a couple of time and I haven’t seen anyone dancing. That was a safety flight announcement.

  • David Z

    One thing’s for sure: it’s gotten people talking about it, even if the effect is just for a few days. If it’ll boost their passenger traffic and eventually revenue, then it’s served its purpose despite how some folks feel about this.

  • Bryan

    Whether or not the videos are real, it sure beats the usual, boring announcements. Sometimes, by the expression on their faces, you can tell the flight crew really enjoys making those announcements. Loosen up, have a little fun.

  • Roger

    I saw posts on another site where everyone was outraged at such a “sexist” and “demeaning” video demeaning “safety professionals”.

    If you were truly passionate about being a safety professional, the your number one goal would be to get people to pay attention to the safety brief, and you have to admit, dancing flight attendants would be entertaining enough to do that. There wouldn’t be a single person reading or checking emails during the brief!

    To bad it wasn’t real.

  • Sasho

    JetBlue is my preferred carrier, but Southwest is number 2 (it’s the nonassigned seat thing). Although this particular Southwest probably IS staged, I have definitely been rapped to on a Southwest flight (once). I also once got a rather funny comedian announcing flight attendant. As for the Cebu clip: I always try to pay attention to those safety/mechanical announcements. but I have to do so very intentionally. I agree with Roger above. I’d definitely be paying close attention. And the attendants didn’t miss any safety steps, so why not have fun at work? Travel by air is getting so dreary these days. Why not have a bit of fun for us travelers as well?

  • John Manalo

    Take it for what it is. Entertainment with a lot of safety information in it.
    The purpose of the safety presentation is to inform the passengers, whether they want to listen to it or NOT! I have to admit, even I don’t pay attention to the safety presentations anymore. I would definitely pay attention to this, even if it were not my main purpose for watching it. I would still be getting the information I needed if an accident were to happen.
    Apparently, the airline did the standard presentation prior to this one. So don’t see any neglect on their part.
    As far as the malicious intent, Grow Up. There was nothing sexy with the dance. I’m sure guys could easily dance to this presentation too.