Hard truth here.
When people see things: —They already know –or– —They don’t care about (because it is boring to look at) they simply tune your sign out.
HERE’S AN EXAMPLE:
Pretend you’re on an airplane.
Think about the flight announcements before you take off on a flight:
Look around….almost everyone doesn’t care. They’re either reading, or sleeping, or have headphones on.
Utterly ignoring the poor lady doing the demonstration.
She’s even telling you how to get the hell out of the plane in an emergency….but no one cares!
Why?
MAYBE people have already heard this information before.
–or–
MAYBE people just don’t care.
Chances are: it’s just PLAIN BORING!! (sorry to be so blunt)
Ever thought about that?
I have….because I don’t often pay CLOSE attention to the pre-flight announcements….not worth taking off my amazing Bose headphones to hear it. (no affiliate link yet!)
However, there is one Airlines I ALWAYS Tune in to:
The Southwest Airlines pre-flight announcements! Corny? Cheesy? Maybe.
Southwest Airlines lets their flight attendants say whatever they want, so long as they get the point across.
It’s really crazy effective (and maybe you can learn from this).
Southwest Airlines flight attendants will usually have the whole plane laughing and smiling with sayings like:
“If you’re traveling with small children…..may God help you!“
“In case of a sudden drop in cabin pressure, please let go of your neighbor’s thigh….then strap the oxygen mask over your head.”
“To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt. If you don’t know how to use one, you probably shouldn’t be out in public unsupervised.”
“Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Southwest Airlines.”
The pilot says:
“We’ve reached our cruising altitude now, and I’m turning off the seat belt sign. I’m switching to autopilot, too, so I can come back there and have a drink.”
THE POINT IS:
If you make your message INTERESTING AND EVEN FUNNY…people will look at it. The main purpose is to be INFORMATIVE….but who says being informative can’t be entertaining also?
Think about this the next time you’re sitting down to create sign content.
Use this quick cheat-sheet to see if you did it right (in this order):
#1.) Is this message informative? Will it help the people reading it?
#2.) Is this something the person actually cares about?
#3.) If this is a boring subject, is this at least SLIGHTLY entertaining?
By the way….watch George Carlin rip boring airline announcements to SHREDS in this YouTube video (totally NSFW, yet hilarious)!
