Richard thanks for the timely post. We have been talking at length about the BA ad at The Nursery, and most (myself included) quickly jumped all over the negatives. But then perhaps we are not the target audience, who are desperate in these uncertain times to know that some things never change. Back to the Future

I wonder whether a large part of the target for this might not be internal. In his ridiculously-titled book "Obliquity" (he obviously was wanting low sales calling it that) http://tinyurl.com/3mazcnv the wonderful John Kay talks about how companies that aim at "shareholder value" - i.e. at profits directly - tend to underachieve (even in terms of shareholder value) those which aim at being great at doing or making something - in fact one example he cites is from the field of aviation - Boeing http://tinyurl.com/6j6r2tu (the story is just pages 21 and 22 on that link).
So it may be that BA are trying to rally their troops to just be great at being an airline - flying & serving - in the sure belief that if they just do this then profits will follow (this being aiming at profits obliquely - hence his title, all of which is inspired by John Stuart Mill's oblique principle)

Nice thoughts. It's always good to think of the bigger picture. After all it's what we are supposed to do in our thinking, so we should do it in our critique.

Sometimes it's easy to get carried away hating something that is bad, but we should always remember who it is aimed at and why it may have got there.

Very interesting points. Thanks!

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I must admit I think the strategy is bang on - BA have nothing if they don't have pride. I've always felt a sense about BA even when they painted the French national flag on their tail fins. Trouble is, this is a 'be it' model not a 'tell it' one. these days its easier for brands to act and for those actions to speak louder than old school big brand ads.

It's beautiful but it seems to glorify the heritage in a sort of 'here's how great we used to be' way

My main problem is that it's just not believable IMO. I'm not a huge fan of Virgin Atlantic's ads, although I am a huge fan of their service. Their marketing positions them as the sexier, more fun & exciting option, and it's believable because what the brand does matches what they say. Inflight entertainment has Nintendo as well as films. Ice cream after dinner when you watch a film. Little touches but it's just a much more enjoyable experience to fly with Virgin. And that's just economy, before you get onto the joys of Virgin Upper vs BA Club/First.

I see the BA ads and I just think it's pretty meaningless. When I fly BA I don't notice any really perceptible differentiation between BA and the other non-budget carriers. It's certainly way behind Virgin for long haul IMO.

So I find myself feeling exasperation when I see the money spent behind the campaign as I'd rather BA focused on trying to understand how they could improve their service offering instead of trying to create smoke and mirrors with advertising.

Admittedly I'm a strategist who's much more interested in experience planning and service design than advertising. But it goes back to the classics of a brand truth. BA may very well have 'To Fly, To Serve' as the motto that everyone works towards, but I don't see the proposition translate into the brand experience.

I am having to close this post to comments as it's being spammed. I would still love you comment so mail it to me at huntingtonr@me.com and i'll put it up.

As ever there's a lot of talk about the brand. I'm really interested in the customer experience so would like to talk about my own. I have recently flown on BA and on one of their main competitors - Virgin Atlantic. Whilst there's no way the two flights could be directly compared (Virgin: Longhaul to/ from USA. BA: Shorthaul to/ from Amsterdam.) some interesting things did surface.

The Virgin staff I found helpful and up for a little bit of friendly banter. That's nice. They act in a way that seemingly transcends the brand/ customer relationship. It's like they're there with you as one of the group. They're there to help you, but in a friendly way. The BA staff again were helpful but, for me, very 'British' - officious, efficient and briefed to carry out actions. They very much acted in a way To Serve - which suits their positioning. But I'd argue
they are too concentrated on serving instead of actually listening and engaging. An example was a lady on my Amsterdam flight that wanted to
visit the loo. The BA stewardess essentially said no to her and told her to wait as the steward needed to finish giving out her rolls and coffee. Her action of serving was deemed more important than actually putting the customer first. Typical British trait: carry out your orders so you can't be criticised, even if it means putting your customers nose out of joint a little. But like I say, a 40 minute flight has very different pressures than a 9 hour transatlantic flight.

When disembarking the plane I actually chatted to the pilot and one of the steward staff and asked them what they thought about the 'To Fly. To Serve.' campaign. They had a little wry smile and said they understood why it needed to happen but their feelings were mixed. I got the impression it was the kind of thing people would ask them at
parties.

As touched on above, to me the job of this campaign goes well beyond the TV spot to change Joe Bloggs' perception. For me this is a powerful rallying call internally. Trying to pull people together and motivate them after large scale industrial action. The biggest challenge BA have no is living up to it as I personally don't believe their staff are any better than any other staff on airplanes. And to prove it, I acted a little like an arse on the flight back from
Amsterdam. We were given a Deli Pack with some nibbles in it but I asked the stewardess for a beer. The in flight magazine said I could
have complimentary drinks so I asked. She said no. I questioned her and told her I'd recently seen the TV ad and thought they were there
to serve my needs. She gave a stock response: "We don't serve drinks on this flight." Sticking to the rules. Sticking to the scripts. No ifs, no buts. Very British indeed.

The biggest question for me which proves the standing of BAs cabin crew would be if Virgin opened up a short haul airline that serve the
UK and Europe. How many of us would fly Virgin instead? Surely that would be the biggest proof?

I thinking that the long and short of this that the success of this campaign is down to BA and whether this is advertising in lieu of product performance or advertising to celebrate the improvement in the performance of the product. The former is understandable but indefensible.

Advertising and sticking to the script is absolutely the key. I have a business selling log home building kits and I train my customer service representatives very well. I do not want to have any problems!

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I am more concerned about the semiotic significance of the use of the moustache throughout the film - try counting them. Seriously.

Although not partial to unnecessary facial hair I rather like the thought of the stewardesses donning a fabulous array of different styles from around the globe - from the Zapata to the Walrus. I would definitely fly with them - and so would you I would wager. Just a thought...