The New BA Advert: To Fly. To Serve
Paxing All Over The World
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 10,842
Likes: 328
From: Hertfordshire, UK.
If they had divided the cost of this production (including mgmt time) and given that directly to the shareholders - at least someone would have been happy. The observations re-posted by Re-Heat (there must be some mishtake, surely?) are spot on. It tells you that no pilots were involved in the final approvals process of this load of old codswallop. (for the non Brit reader, that is an old fashioned word for Bull$hit)
Last edited by PAXboy; 25th September 2011 at 14:09.
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 166
Likes: 0
From: Garden of England
OILY, unctous voice which, to me, is utterly meretricious. My first thought was that it was all a spoof. By half way through, I was still waiting for the punch line.
Paxing All Over The World
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 10,842
Likes: 328
From: Hertfordshire, UK.
If it was Mr Clarkson, at least you would KNOW that he was extracting the urine! I agree with Re-Heat's view that it does not hold together and (even without further viewing as I've had my lunch) realise that they have just tried to cram too much into the time. They tried to get 90 years of history and the present- in one go. Better to have broken it up into 15 second chunks dealing with different eras and then lead the customer through to the present and the (hoped for) future.
Surely not ...
the management brief was clearly poor
Surely not ...
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 13
Likes: 0
From: lhr
re the advert
well i think its great and does show what a great airline we once were as we had the Concorde and made great use of it ,as they still do in the advert even though BA dont want anything to do with Concorde (if you ask willy). And its far better than the virgin ad which is just an advert for another bunch of stuck up pilots and cabin crew ....i think its well done but not sure what the message is ...to fly to serve . i think it should be ..we fly to serve . No airbuses proberbly because we are a boeing airline at heart . As i say great Concorde bits especially the end where the rocket leaves the rest for dead .
Joined: Oct 2002
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 8,201
Likes: 347
From: London UK
What we now need is an airshow of all the types in the ad, because apart from Concorde they are all still airworthy (RAF will surely lend a VC10 with a temporary paint job), and fly them all together like the end piece does.
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,415
Likes: 2
From: Europe
It's a classic example of an ad that wins huge praise and awards from other advertisers, and even from people who like interesting film/video, but doesn't actually sell, in this case, one additional airline seat. Or car, shaving cream tube, box of chocolates; whatever the product might be.
I forget the word the advertisers use to "explain" apparently pointless promotion of a brand rather than a product. Within many large companies there lurks a manager who actually believes the bull!!!!, and signs off these monstrous wastes of shareholders' money. And of course he or she rather likes the invites to all the corporate entertainment.
The BA ad appealed to me as an aviation fanatic, but it will influence neither my company's ticket buying, nor my personal ticket buying in the slightest. I/we ensure we get value for money, no more, no less, which means buying the cheapest service unless there's a good reason not to. This can happen with BA, when we need to go to somewhere that BA goes to, and when it does we buy BA.
If the ad persuaded me that BA really is value for money even when it is more expensive, we might look harder at the BA option. But the advertisers - and their client, BA - clearly did not think that this is important, which tells us all we need to know.
I forget the word the advertisers use to "explain" apparently pointless promotion of a brand rather than a product. Within many large companies there lurks a manager who actually believes the bull!!!!, and signs off these monstrous wastes of shareholders' money. And of course he or she rather likes the invites to all the corporate entertainment.
The BA ad appealed to me as an aviation fanatic, but it will influence neither my company's ticket buying, nor my personal ticket buying in the slightest. I/we ensure we get value for money, no more, no less, which means buying the cheapest service unless there's a good reason not to. This can happen with BA, when we need to go to somewhere that BA goes to, and when it does we buy BA.
If the ad persuaded me that BA really is value for money even when it is more expensive, we might look harder at the BA option. But the advertisers - and their client, BA - clearly did not think that this is important, which tells us all we need to know.
Joined: Dec 1998
Posts: 3,038
Likes: 52
From: .
Paxing All Over The World
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 10,842
Likes: 328
From: Hertfordshire, UK.
VERY amusing info, thanks spannersatcx.
Once again, the advertsing agency and publicity kids think they know it all. What if theat engineer had been a somewhat disaffected employee and NOT told them? What if he had tipped an nannonymous nod to the media AFTER it had all been shown? As I said earlier, no pilots were involved in the final cut!
If the mgmt had really wanted to be inclusive, they could have representatives from all levels involved in this and giving feedback for, as we all know, it is the people at the rock face who know how the ground lies ...
VS must be highly amused and thrilled at:
Once again, the advertsing agency and publicity kids think they know it all. What if theat engineer had been a somewhat disaffected employee and NOT told them? What if he had tipped an nannonymous nod to the media AFTER it had all been shown? As I said earlier, no pilots were involved in the final cut!
If the mgmt had really wanted to be inclusive, they could have representatives from all levels involved in this and giving feedback for, as we all know, it is the people at the rock face who know how the ground lies ...
VS must be highly amused and thrilled at:
A BA source told the paper: 'The mistake was highly embarrassing – especially as Virgin Atlantic are BA’s prime competitor.
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
From: in my house
Hello...lurked for a while but first post on here....Have been Longhaul LHR for many many years and I am now going to the closet where I chuck my uniform after duty or dry cleaning to inspect the lining!! seriously you are all saying that BA are playing on their image of a fantastic safety record...and while that has been true for a very long time, it doesnt seem that way now. during our dispute engineers volunteered to our "jobs" and are still doing recency flights to keep their liscence...We as a cabin crew community have 100% noticed that our aircraft are not maintained the way they used to be. In the tech log (where all defects are logged) there used to be a couple of items listed....recently we had soooo many it prompted the engineer on landing to ask if we had just run out of ink in our pens. If all the passengers and shareholders who post on here actually took the time to write to BA and say they didnt appreciate our engineers flying round the world on a "jolly" and did the jobs that are payed for...then...we could have adverts on our safety records.
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 2,135
Likes: 0
From: Camp X-Ray
And to add some balance, as a BA pilot and one who gets to inspect the real aircraft Tech Log (not the cabin log where the complaints of 'uneven coin dot flooring' get written up) I'm quite satisfied by the standards of engineering and maintenance on our aircraft, nor have I seen any drop off in those standards due to perhaps one percent of engineering manpower time being redirected. It would indeed seem to be the case that someone should Get a Grip, and perhaps ask who it is who is breaking all these dogboxes, latches, bunk curtains etc. They don't break themselves you know!
Now back to the advert.....
Now back to the advert.....
Fly Conventional Gear
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,600
Likes: 0
From: Winchester
Loved the pictures, although the VC10 could have lingered for a bit longer I think...
Commentary did make me cringe a bit; would have been better off with just some music and dates to give people a sense of progression along with footage of important milestones like first Trident autoland, first jet service etc and maybe some more radio chatter to liven it up a bit. BA's long illustrious history can tell itself; it doesn't need a some awkward sounding voice over.
Commentary did make me cringe a bit; would have been better off with just some music and dates to give people a sense of progression along with footage of important milestones like first Trident autoland, first jet service etc and maybe some more radio chatter to liven it up a bit. BA's long illustrious history can tell itself; it doesn't need a some awkward sounding voice over.
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 3,585
Likes: 0
From: UK
Hello...lurked for a while but first post on here....Have been Longhaul LHR for many many years and I am now going to the closet where I chuck my uniform after duty or dry cleaning to inspect the lining!! seriously you are all saying that BA are playing on their image of a fantastic safety record...and while that has been true for a very long time, it doesnt seem that way now. during our dispute engineers volunteered to our "jobs" and are still doing recency flights to keep their liscence...We as a cabin crew community have 100% noticed that our aircraft are not maintained the way they used to be. In the tech log (where all defects are logged) there used to be a couple of items listed....recently we had soooo many it prompted the engineer on landing to ask if we had just run out of ink in our pens. If all the passengers and shareholders who post on here actually took the time to write to BA and say they didnt appreciate our engineers flying round the world on a "jolly" and did the jobs that are payed for...then...we could have adverts on our safety records.
That was one.