[video_popup width="805" height="454" video_link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQDip9V49U0" video_image_link="https://www.tnooz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/air-newzealand-safety-video-3-690x300.png"]
Earlier this year, Air New Zealand launched an in-flight safety video in collaboration with Sports Illustrated models.
Although the video delivered the flight-safety message (and the inevitable thousands of clicks on YouTube), it was labelled "sexist" via an online petition on Change.org.
Melbourne-based Natasha Young recently filed a petition that claimed "a safety video is to alert passengers on what to do in an emergency; it should not be an excuse to objectify the sexualised female body".
The petition also states:
"This video completely disregards passengers who find it offensive for religious reasons, who have body image struggles, who are parents concerned about their children’s impressionable nature, who believe women deserve more respect, and who have teenage daughters who deserve more respect.
"This video is culturally insensitive; it disregards those who are conservative by nature and are uncomfortable with its imagery and disregards passengers who have been exposed to sexual assault.
"This video creates an unnecessarily difficult and uncomfortable working environment for its female staff, which goes against the entire nature of safety.
"This video forces itself upon the passengers; it is played in the small confines of an aircraft there is no option to turn off the video.
"This video offends those who value the right to choose. Air NZ appears determined to insist that skies are sexy regardless of who they offend."
This petition was supported by over 11,000 people.
Air New Zealand took the step of removing the safety video from its in-flight entertainment system.
However, Air New Zealand spokesperson told Tnooz,
"The video was not pulled due to online backlash, this is a false claim. The video was always intended to be removed after it had completed its run date."
The video is still accessible via the airline's official YouTube channel, and it has crossed over 5.7 million views since February 2014.
Earlier, the airline also released a behind the scenes look at its safety video that has about 850,000 views in YouTube.
A quick search in Twitter reveals a lot of tweet that supports the safety video:
However, there are tweets that support the claim of the petition by Young:
Air New Zealand is known for its in-flight safety videos, the previous videos of the airline include a Hobbit-themed video, and "The Bear essentials" safety video.