Well I don't see what we can do to make the safety briefing less pretentious, less dull. We don't have video screens so we can't show something like the horrendous Manx2/Thomson Airways kids videos.
I do think safety videos are a lot more attention grabbing, espcially the Air New Zealand ones, Deltalina and Virgin. But equally there are shockingly bad ones such as the THY/Man Utd video which makes me cringe.
I believe the pre-recorded annoucement was better received by passengers than being read manually, improving passengers feeling of being "safe and secure".
I feel it's formal and does the trick. And as for talking and not listening, I make sure people pay attention, espcially when I'm doing the demo mid cabin. It only takes one person talking loudly and before you know it everyone is talking and laughing along and those sensible ones who are listening cannot hear.
I also feel it's technically accurate. So I can only assume you are referring to a safety brief that was maybe read manually?
I honestly don't see what we can do to make it better. The day they have us do a Cebu Pacific style safety demo will be the day I resign.