All it reportedly took was a single complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority for a British Airways ad to be grounded recently. The spot, which was created by BBH and is part of BA’s “World of Opportunities” campaign, is centered on the Canton Trade Fair in Guangzhou, China. It includes the line: “Right now, somewhere in the world, is a great business opportunity. And no one can fly you to more of them, direct from the UK, than British Airways.” Unfortunately, British Airways doesn’t fly directly to Guangzhou, though the airline is basically arguing that Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai are close enough.
On its site, the ASA says the tagline above “would be understood by consumers to mean that the Canton Fair was one of the business opportunities that BA flew direct to from the UK. Because we understood that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading.” The watchdog group in turn concluded that “the ad must not appear again in its current form.”
Via The Guardian
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