Personally I think the advertising campaign is to be applauded, well done the new MD.
An awful lot of potential passengers have absolutely no idea of the full range of long haul services from The UKs "Capital" provincial airport, fed as they are by the sterotypichal image that London is the "be all and end all".
...interestingly it is NOT just a few billboards, it is also targetted via email at CEOs / Senior Managers in an area of 25m people, North of Birmingham and West of Leeds.
There are more major cities within an hours drive of Manchesters catchment area than any other UK airport, located as it is, slapbang in the middle of the country, Manchester should by any "sensible measure" be their local international airport of choice.