I think the line "please pay attention to the safety briefing etc." achieves absolutely nothing. Those who wish to listen will, those who don't won't.
Piltdown Man: I beg to disagree. I think that a firm and persuasive message from the Commander to listen to the safety briefing can encourage some naughty passengers to listen. I've seen it happen with friends, especially when using clever ad-libbing.
As for the recorded easyJet safety demonstration, I thought it was pretty good, but I've only heard it once. It's calm, clear, audible and understandable (and my God is that a common shortcoming in safety PAs, as I've said here before). Whether it describes the safety points of the A320 aircraft accurately, I am not qualified to say.
My two pence worth on the flight deck PAs is that a lot of passengers
do appreciate them. In fact, they and the safety briefing are the only ones I listen to properly. But you'll never please everyone - some people have no interest in the flight details, others (like me) find it the most interesting aspect of the entire experience.
What are problematic, though, are mumbling/inaudible/waffly PAs. They
really don't give the right impression. A friend (and 'nervous flyer') once said to me that she really wished some pilots didn't pause before giving the destination, as if they just needed to check. If you speak quickly, it's possible to say:
Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon from the Flight Deck. My name is John Smith. I am the Captain. My colleague on the Flight Deck is Senior First Officer Alan Jones. Alan is the pilot flying for this sector, so he will fly you to London Stansted this afternoon.
Our flight time will be approximately one and half hours. We'll cruise at 38,000ft and our routing will take us out to Paris, then up to the Channel, over London and into Stansted most probably from the East.*
The cabin is supervised by Jeremy#, who is assisted by Katy and Holly. They will shortly run you through a safety demonstration for this Airbus A320. This briefing is for your benefit alone, so please pay them the courtesy of listening to it. It will only take a couple of minutes.
I hope you enjoy the flight. We'll update on our progress once we're in the cruise. Thanks for your attention.
...in less than a minute. What's the problem?
Nick
*Apologies for invented/implausible flight routings!
# Sorry, I couldn't resist.