I've sat through numerous Air New Zealand safety videos over the years and whilst every now and then they hit the spot most of the time they're lame and overly long.

It also seems like a waste of money that presumably finds it way onto ticket prices.

The article seems to imply that it's not a waste of money which is why it's expanded in use, especially with having partners like tourism agencies chip in.

Yeah, I've seen my share of those.

I sort of assumed that Air NZ started this trend because of all the hype surrounding the first ones. There's an article covering the history of these here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/374709/feature-a-bri... (they claim the first was in 2009, so a couple of years after the earliest one mentioned in tfa).

I find them downright annoying now. The cringe factor makes them uncomfortable to watch which is not what you want from a safety video. It feels as though they jumped the shark.