This is an advert I simply don’t understand. Getting the soundtrack right is a strong start – and the imagery of jumbo jets taxiing around the London sights is visually engaging, but…
But what does it mean? If you fly British airways you’ll crawl around at 5mph? Get on one of our planes and we’ll take to you East London via the M4?
“Don’t fly”? Don’t fly? OK, I won’t. Good news for the UK economy. Bad news for BA. Maybe there’s a very British self-deprecation thing going on here, but I’m not really buying it.
But showing it in the UK suggest, rather like the ridiculous Eurostar ad with Jarvis Cocker, that BA wants you to go abroad and then fly back into Britain. It’s daft.
There’s a clear effort to tie in BA with the Olympic Games, so I’d guess that this ad – or one like it – is being shown around Europe, or even the world. And in that context it sort-of makes sense. No doubt lots of people who work in ad agencies will be telling us how clever all of this is, while rubbing base into thier eyeballs and bell-ends, but hey ho.
Maybe having spunked a load of cash on The Clash and lots of expensive CGI, BA figures this will put their domestic airline back at the forefront of people’s minds as the premier UK airline. Or maybe they’ll connect BA to a nuclear catastrophe?
Home Advantage? Not in this case, BA, not in this case.