The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has used children in a new ad to discourage poor behavior on airplanes, noting, “Children know it’s not safe to disrupt a flight. You should too.”
New FAA Behavior Ad Uses Children To Scold Adults
Poor behavior has surged on airlines in 2021. I continue to believe this is due to mandatory masks onboard coupled with a lack of service, which raises tensions, particularly on full flights.
Whatever the root cause, the problem will likely get worse before it gets better. Unless the delta and new lambda variants of COVID-19 cause an increase in hospitalizations or deaths in the USA, it is likely that the federal mask mandate will expire in September.
Then, it will be up to airlines to decide whether to continue enforcing masks onboard or not. While I expect all airlines will drop this requirement on a long-term basis, if the federal mandate is lifted and airlines maintain mandatory mask rules, even for a short time, I suspect bad behavior will proliferate even more. I can just imagine situations like this:
PASSENGER: Why should I wear my mask?
FA: It’s airline policy.
PASSENGER: But the government no longer requires it!
The new ad features a diverse group of children lecturing adults to behave.
Rather than view the ad as condescending, I view it as an unfortunate necessity. Maybe having kids talk to adults will work. It’s at least worth a try…
What are your thoughts on the new FAA behavior ad?
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Sadly it is very appropriate, considering the incident – yesterday? – at check-in where a mother started attacking check in agents, throwing the keyboard, yelling and swearing, throwing a queuing bollard at staff, while her kids looked on, her daughter crying in anguish for her to stop.
Clearly it won’t work for all but if it makes a few think twice then it is money well spent.
The only thing worse than children misbehaving on a flight is adults doing the same.