Ah, I may have jumped the gun
Matt101, as I soooo dislike the new trash, I was happy to pick up any cudgel that came to hand! Certainly the island and winking face were good then but, I would suggest, what they needed now was plain speaking. In the middle of the worst recession in decades, they needed to talk about value and service (funny old word that
).
Yes, the history is good but probably only for those that remember part of it. For the 20 somethings, the history will be irrelevant. They may very well see this advert as a bunch of old fogies only suitable for carrying their grandparents.
BA (and other legacy carriers) face the same problem that the Whiskey business found itself in some 20 years ago. Their brand was associated with parents, grandparents and old mens clubs - a clientele that was dying. So they had to remarket the brand. In the UK the newspapers
The Daily Telegraph and
The Times had the same problem and reinvented themselves. Thus far, BA has not. I agree that there IS a case to be made for promoting yourself as your history and solid approach - but you still have to sell something new - and this does not.
The advert might be nice for memory lane but what is new?