New Air France safety video is très chic

Harriet Baskas | Special for USA TODAY

As passengers on Delta, Virgin America, Air New Zealand and many other air carriers have learned, celebrities, choreography, snappy tunes, inside jokes and hobbits have made in-flight safety videos as entertaining and engaging as they are informative – and no longer something to snooze through.

Now Air France has joined the humorous in-flight safety video movement with a chic and cheeky safety demonstration reel scheduled to roll out on long- and medium-haul flights in April but making the YouTube rounds now.

The choreographed video runs almost five minutes and features five fashionably dressed and color-coordinated "passengers" demonstrating how to comply with the rules being explained – in both French and English – by a flight attendant who not only advises on the proper use of personal electronic devices, but notes that wearing a seatbelt will not only ensure your safety, but "will elegantly highlight your waistline."

How French!

As the five "passengers" file out from the lavatory surrendering everything from a traditional cigarette and an electronic cigarette to a fat cigar and a pipe, the flight attendant comments that not only is it prohibited to smoke in the toilets, but that "a no-smoking flight is strictly chic."

This new Air France safety video comes on the heels of the airline's new worldwide "France is in the Air" advertising campaign, which launched on March 8. The first 45-second, dreamily-choreographed and "swinging" commercial is set to Warm in the Winter by Glass Candy and already has more than 35 million YouTube views.

Harriet Baskas is a Seattle-based airports and aviation writer and USA TODAY Travel's "At the Airport" columnist. She occasionally contributes to Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog. Follow her at twitter.com/hbaskas.