Sunday 29 July 2012

3 big brands, 3 Olympic adverts - Vol. II -British Airways


I´m going to share during three weeks a very interesting review of 3 big brands that are rolling out their Olympic adverts: Adidas, British Airways and Omega.

You can find this review an other interesting material about advertising at "AD Breakdown", the BBC´s magazine's review of advertising.

British Airways




THE ADVERT: British Airways, Don't Fly

THE BRIEF: BA takes Britons out of the UK, right? So show what the airline is doing to support its athletes at home.

THE SCHTICK: A BA jet taxis through the streets of London. Counter-intuitively, the airline is instructing its customers not to fly abroad but to stay at home and cheer their team.

THE BREAKDOWN: The UK's flag carrier is famed for its grand, big-budget, award-winning adverts.

Remember its famous commercial in which thousands of extras in the Utah desert formed a winking face? Or its 1983 sci-fi-style advert in which the entire island of Manhattan appeared to fly over the streets of suburban Britain?

BA's latest effort is no less grandiose in scale. But its tone is far more playful, self-mocking even.

Its premise stems from the conundrum that, in advertising to a British audience, the airline is usually encouraging them to leave the country.And yet as an Olympic sponsor, it feels obliged to urge them to stay.

The result is more than a little tongue-in-cheek.

A BA jet collects a load of passengers at Heathrow. But instead of taking off, it taxis down the M4 to central London.

The plane trundles past a series of landmarks - Trafalgar Square, the Houses of Parliament, the Shard - before stopping to let its customers disembark at the Olympic park in Stratford.

Some viewers may find it a little too knowing. Others will focus instead on the rather impressive CGI imagery.

There's more for social media users. BA also commissioned an interactive version which allows browsers to type in their postcodes and see their own street, rendered via Google Maps, through the window of the aircraft as it makes its way to east London.

One rather incongruous choice, however, is the use of The Clash's London Calling as the soundtrack.

Some may question whether a song about nuclear catastrophe and urban unrest is the best way to celebrate the capital, but presumably BA are banking on most listeners only paying attention to the title.

THE VERDICT: Paul Domenet, co-founder of ad agency Johnny Fearless and former creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, says: "I like that there's something slightly disingenuous about the whole thing, having the nerve to say 'Don't fly with us in the first place'. Self-effacement always goes down well with the British. BA have been responsible for some of the best ads that have ever been produced. What I liked is that it's a return to that scale. It's beautifully crafted. The personalisation is a bit of genius. It adds an extra dimension. It elevates it above a TV ad. This is really how social media should be done - you shouldn't intrude on people's conversations, you should be the subject of their conversations."


Read the riginal piece of news here

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