Are "fun" preflight briefings effective?

Many carriers are trying to make their safety briefings, whether live or on video, more entertaining in hopes that passengers will pay attention to them instead of routinely tuning them out. The need to really pay attention was demonstrated in the recent Southwest Airlines explosive decompression. Passenger videos showed that many, if not most, of the passengers were wearing their oxygen masks upside down, leaving their noses uncovered and defeating the whole purpose of supplemental oxygen.

Among all carriers, Southwest is perhaps the most tolerant of flight attendants giving "wacky" safety briefings (all live, not on video), incorporating such novelties as rap, dancing, and sometimes silly humor. While I have not yet seen any information as to what type of briefing these passengers received, it will no doubt be a factor in the NTSB investigation.

There is increasing concern in the industry that some "funny" safety briefings may cross the line from being informative to being mere entertainment, obscuring the safety information that needs to be communicated. A 2014 academic study published by researchers in Australia suggested that, while passengers were more likely to pay attention to humorous safety videos, "...the real question with these is even if you pay more attention, what do you take away from it? And the problem with humor is that people remember the jokes but not the safety message."

I recently watched the "Middle Earth" safety video from Air New Zealand. I hardly even noticed the safety information that was being presented, it was so buried in theatrics. On the other hand, a recent Air France video featuring fashion models demonstrating the narrator's standard safety briefing did get the message across, in my opinion, while still being entertaining. American's current safety briefing is in much the same vein,.

If it is found that the passengers on Southwest 1380 did receive some kind of ad-lib humorous safety briefing, this may prompt more research into what is the most effective way to deliver vital safety information--like how to get passengers to not wear their oxygen masks upside down.