Risky game for British Airways

I love a good commercial, and with viewers flocking to their screens for events such as the Euros and the Olympics this summer, it's gonna be a bumper year for advertising agencies. Companies are putting big amounts of money on the table to get a slice of the precious minutes of screen time available for advertisers.

Which is why I was a little confused at the new British Airways advert released this week, which urges the British public to stay at home this summer and enjoy what's on in their local area and in London.

The one minute long ad sees a British Airways plane 'drive' around London, passing all the iconic sites, before reaching a halt outside the Olympic stadium.

Ultimately, the motive behind the campaign must lie behind the sponsorship deal British Airways has for the Olympics. It's an Official Partner for the London 2012 Games, and will heavily benefit from the games, one presumes.

Maybe then, one could presume that British Airways are benefiting from new advertising campaign, maybe from the government? They would have paid millions of pounds into the London 2012 Olympic Games, so why would they risk losing more money by promoting families to stay at home and not use their planes? I'm not suggesting what they're doing is wrong, in fact I think it's right of them to promote the UK during this special year. But British Airways is a business, and business doesn't play nice - which makes me think they're getting something in return for this deal.

Who knows, all I know is that the advert and the intense advertising campaign surrounding it (British Airways is using both Facebook and Twitter to promote their new campaign) must have cost them a lot of money to pull off. Time will tell when they release their end-of-year revenue figures early next year.

You can watch the advertising campaign here. You can also check out their Facebook page and Twitter too.

Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia

Design plans unveiled for Thames Estuary Airport

Designs for the estimated £50Billion airport in the Thames Estuary have been unveiled.

The plans for what has been dubbed the ‘world’s biggest airport’ show how the project, which plans to serve over 150million passengers a year, will be built on waste land on the Isle of Grain in Kent.

Lord Norman Foster, the architect who created the new Wembley Stadium, is behind the plans for the new airport, which includes four runways, terminal buildings and high-speed rail connections to London and the rest of the UK.

Talking of the benefits of the plans, Lord Foster said that it would “lay the foundations for the future prosperity of Britain.”

Architectural critic Edwin Heathcoate said that the plans would be a “complete re-imagining of the UK’s transport infrastructure.”

“It’s a vision of the kind of integration in transport and utilities that has not been considered since the great age of canals and then of railways.”

The plans for a new airport, first unveiled two years ago by the Thames Estuary Airport Feasibility Review, will serve to overcome the current problems surrounding London’s Aviation industry.

Experts estimate that by 2030, Heathrow – currently the UK’s biggest and busiest airport – will reach maximum capacity, and with other London airports restricted on growth, a sustainable resolution to the problems is needed.

However, critics of the plans, including Medway council and environmental charities including the RSPB – who say the plans will threaten thousands of bird species – are against the plans.

Leader of Medway Council, Rodney Chambers, said the plan were “quite possibly the daftest in a long list of pie-in-the-sky schemes that have been put forward for an airport.”

An RSPB spokesperson said: “We oppose this airport proposal because the massive environmental impact is unjustified.”

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia


*a piece from my University of Kent portfolio