British Airways face advertisement

Face
Smiling face formed by a crowd of people
Client	British Airways
Agency	Saatchi & Saatchi
Directed by	Hugh Hudson
Music by	Malcolm McLaren
Release date(s)	1989 (Television)
Running time	30 seconds
Language	English

 The British Airways "Face" Advertisement is a television commercial campaign by British Airways in 1989. The commercial was made by advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, and is often considered to be a television commercial classic.

Production

The advertisement was produced in the US state of Utah, with thousands of extras participating in the advertisement. Places of production included Salt Lake City, Lake Powell, and the salt flats near Moab, Utah

Rundown

Viewers first see a group of swimmers swimming, all wearing red clothing. A close-up of one of the swimmer's lips appear, and then, a quick cut into an aerial view of the swimmers walking out of the water in the shape of a human lip.

Afterwards, viewers see a group of people, wearing blue and black, walking on the streets of a city, forming the shape of an eye. And then, a group of people walking on a grassland, forming the shape of an ear. Afterwards, these groups of people (with the exception of the group that formed the ear, perhaps because they will eventually form the face instead) gather on a salt flat, and a scene is shown where people from all walks of life, from all cultures around the world unite together, with the British Union Jack in the background, and British Airways crew members in the midst of it.

The scene then cuts to an aerial view of the face, which smiles and winks. Afterwards, the face turns into the impression of the globe.

The sound track is "Aria on Air" by Malcolm McLaren.

Versions

There are three versions of the commercial. One is the original version, which was recut into another version around 1994 because new uniform was introduced for British Airways crew members. Another version was aired during Christmas, where the ending was replaced with a child hugging Father Christmas and a cut into a view of Earth from space.

Honours

The ad is often considered to be a British Airways Classic, and it is ranked 62 on the 100 Greatest TV Ads programme aired by Channel 4

Parodies

In the 1990s, the ad was parodied by a British laundry detergent company, featuring crowds of people in the shape of articles of clothing like t-shirts and underpants set to similar music.

More recently, Silverjet parodied the ad, using the same locations and the Flower Duet aria on which the music for the original ad was based. The Silverjet ad also features a face, but it is formed of only four bodies (two eyes, mouth and nose) to emphasize the exclusivity of an all business class airline. Likewise the music is minimalist, quickly cutting to an a cappella recording of the Flower Duet, the use of the original opera version, rather than a pop rerecording again evoking the exclusivity of the airline. This ad was made by the makers of the original ad then at M&C Saatchi, having lost the British Airways contract.

(source:wikipedia)

British Airways ethnic liveries

BA ethnic tail Market Day on an Embraer ERJ 145

In 1997 British Airways adopted a new livery. One part of this was a newly stylised version of the British Airways "Speedbird" logo, but the major change was the introduction of tail-fin art. Also known as the Utopia or world image tailfins, they used art and designs from international artists and other sources to represent countries on BA's route network. The signature of the artist was carried near the design on the tail.

The new corporate logo was created by the London-based design agency Newell and Sorrell, who also oversaw the implementation of the tailfin designs.

The German designs refer to the BA subsidiary Deutsche BA, and the Australian designs to the BA's alliance with Qantas.

Criticism

The adoption of this aircraft livery was seen as a move away from the traditional British image of the carrier. BA suggested that the previous "Landor Associates" scheme carried an air of arrogance and detachment, and insisted that the new tailfins were popular with international travellers. However, they were unpopular with many people in the UK, despite nine of the designs being inspired by either England, Scotland or Wales. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher showed her displeasure at the designs by covering one of the new tailfins on a model 747 with a handkerchief. She declared, "We fly the British flag, not these awful things."

Virgin Atlantic took advantage of the controversy by applying a Union flag scheme to the front end of its aircraft. In their own 1999 relaunch, the flag was also applied to the vertical winglets of Virgin Atlantic's aircraft.

Safety concerns were also raised that the lack of a consistent tail design could lead to BA aircraft being mis-identified by controllers and other aircrew.[citation needed]

[edit]Review of use

While the majority of the designs were applied to a variety of aircraft models, one scheme (the stylised version of the Chatham Dockyard Union Flag) was used on Concorde only. By 1999, BA had repainted around 170 aircraft in its new colours but then Chief Executive, Bob Ayling, announced a review of this process. The aircraft already repainted would keep the new designs, but the remainder of the fleet (still showing the pre-1997 union flag design) would receive a variant of Concorde's Union Flag design. The announcement was timed to divert some attention from Virgin's relaunch.

Finally in May 2001 the new Chief Executive, Rod Eddington, announced the entire fleet would receive the new Union flag livery. Eddington argued that while an attempt to increase the airline's appeal was not a bad thing, the exercise hurt the image of the carrier among its core customers — those that are attracted by the British identity, which the ethnic tailfins diluted somewhat.

Liveries

Gallery

Animals and Trees on a Boeing 747-400	Blomsterang on a Boeing 767-300	Chatham Dockyard Union Flag on a Boeing 747-400	Chelsea Rose on a Boeing 767-300
Delftblue Daybreak on a Boeing 767	Koguty Lowickie on a Boeing 757-200	Market Day on an Embraer ERJ 145	Ndebele on a Boeing 737-400
Paithani on a Citiexpress Embraer ERJ 145	Water Dreaming on an Embraer ERJ 145	Waves and Cranes on a Boeing 767-300	Waves of the City on an Embraer ERJ 145

List

British Airways World Art liveries

Name Summary Origin

Chatham Dockyard Union Flag Introduced on Concorde for relaunch, now the livery for entire fleet United Kingdom

Animals and trees Art of a tribe in the Kalahari Desert Botswana

Avignon Jim Avignon design, contemporary German art Germany

Bavaria/Edelweis German art Germany

Benyhone Anglicized Gaelic for "Mountain of the birds", a Scottish tartan design Scotland

Blomsterang/Flower Field Hearts and flowers Sweden

Blue Poole Pottery design England

British Blend Coffee cup design, result of New Britain competition, used on a single A320 United Kingdom

Chelsea Rose Representation of the English rose England

Colour Down the Side Abstract cornish art, used on a single Dash 8 of Brymon Airways (BA Citiexpress) England

Colum Anglicized Irish for "Dove": a Celtic design Ireland

Crossing Borders Egyptian scroll Egypt

Delftblue Daybreak Delft pottery design Netherlands

Golden Khokloma Representation of art on pottery and utensils Russia

Gothic/Calligraphy German art Germany

Grand Union By Christine Bass (artist and designer), result of a Sunday Times competition, based on traditional English canal boat art United Kingdom

Koguty Lowickie Polish artist's print of cockerels, peacocks and flower Poland

L'esprit Liberté Celebrating human rights movement International

La Pyramide du Louvre One aircraft painted with image of central courtyard of Louvre museum France

Nalanji Dreaming Aboriginal art, originally designed for Qantas Australia

Ndebele Martha Geometric art. By Martha Masanabo South Africa

Ndebele Emmly Similar to Ndebele Martha, by Emmly Masanabo South Africa

Paithani Textile print India

Pause to remember Poppy design, used around Remembrance Day. Now applied to fuselage United Kingdom

Rendezvous Chinese calligraphy Hong Kong

Spring Images of Romania Romania

Sterntaler/Bauhaus Antje Brüggemann's 3-D 'ceramic objects' art Germany

Teaming up for Britain Adopted for 2000 Summer Olympics, features British Olympic Association logo United Kingdom

Wunala Dreaming Like Nalanji Dreaming, this livery was designed for Qantas Australia

Water Dreaming Art representing northern Australian terrain Australia

Waves and Cranes/Nami Tsuru Montage of a Japanese artist's depictions of waves and cranes Japan

Waves of the City/Floating Simple and modern United States

Whale Rider From wood carving representing the whaling tradition of the artist's community Canada

Wings Representing seagulls in flight Denmark

Youm al-Suq Arab market Saudi Arabia

(source:wikipedia)

Airline sex discrimination policy controversy

Three airlines, British Airways, Qantas and Air New Zealand, have attracted criticism for controversial seating policies which discriminate against adult male passengers on the basis of their gender. British Airways ended its discriminatory policy in August, 2010 following a court case.

British Airways

BA banned men from sitting next to unaccompanied children on flights

In March 2001, it was revealed that British Airways has a policy of not seating adult male passengers next to unaccompanied children, even if the child's parents are elsewhere on the plane. This led to accusations that the airline considers all men to be potential paedophiles and women to be incapable of such abuse. The issue was first raised when a business executive had moved seats to be closer to two of his colleagues. A flight attendant then asked him to move because he was then sitting next to two unaccompanied children which was a breach of BA company policy. The executive, a head hunter, said he felt humiliated as a result, stating "I felt I was being singled out and that I was being accused of something." British Airways admitted that staff were under instructions to keep men away from unaccompanied children whenever possible because of the dangers of male paedophiles.

This issue again came to prominence in 2005 following complaints by Michael Kemp who had been instructed to swap seats with his wife when on a GB Airways flight. The flight attendant informed him that for an adult male stranger to be sitting next to a child was a breach of the airline's child welfare regulations. This case was arguably even more notable than other cases as the girl's parents were in fact on board the flight but such a policy still applied. Michele Elliot, director of the children's charity Kidscape stated that the rule "is utterly absurd. It brands all men as potential sex offenders."

The most high profile victim of the policy was politician (and now London Mayor) Boris Johnson, who criticised the company after they mistakenly attempted to separate him from his own children on a flight. He stated that those who create or defend such policies "fail to understand the terrible damage that is done by this system of presuming guilt in the entire male population just because of the tendencies of a tiny minority," linking such discrimination to the reduced number of male teachers and therefore lower achievement in schools. Like others, Johnson also raised the policy's flaw in ignoring female abusers and branded airlines with such policies as "cowardly" for giving in to "loony hysteria."

British Airways defended the policy, stating it had been implemented as a result of requests from customers. The company claimed that it "was responding to a fear of sexual assaults."

In January 2010 businessman Mirko Fischer from Luxembourg sued the airline for sex discrimination following an incident where he was forced to change seats as a result of the policy, thus separating him from his pregnant wife. Fischer stated "I was made to feel like a criminal in front of other passengers. It was totally humiliating." On 24 June 2010, Mr Fischer was successful in winning compensation from British Airways with the company admitting sex discrimination in Mr Fischer's case. BA paid £2,161 in costs and £750 in damages which Fischer donated to child protection charities. BA said that the "policy was now under review". In August 2010, British Airways changed its policy and began seating unaccompanied minors in a nondiscrminatory manner near the cabin crew.

Qantas and Air New Zealand

In November 2005, it was revealed that Qantas and Air New Zealand have seating policies similar to that of British Airways. The policy came to light following an incident in 2004 when Mark Wolsay, who was seated next to a young boy on a Qantas flight in New Zealand, was asked to change seats with a female passenger. A steward informed him that "it was the airline's policy that only women were allowed to sit next to unaccompanied children".

Mr. Wolsay, a shipping manager, stated he felt the policy "totally discriminatory", and the New Zealand Herald suggested to the airline that the implication of the policy was that "it considered male passengers to be dangerous to children". New Zealand's Green Party stated that the policy was discriminatory and reported the matter to the Human Rights Commissioner. On learning of the policies several protests occurred including a 22 hour tree top protest by double amputee Kevin Gill in Nelson. He stated that the policy could be the thin end of a wedge with men soon banned from sitting next to children at sports events and on other forms of public transport. Gill also raised the issue of what would happen if the policy had been race based and targeted ethnic minorities rather than men.

The publicity given to the issue in 2005 caused other victims of the policy to publicly describe their experiences. For example, Bethlehem fire officer Philip Price revealed he had been forced to switch seats in 2002 on an Air New Zealand flight to Christchurch.

Cameron Murphy, president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, criticised the policy and stated that "there was no basis for the ban". He said it was wrong to assume that all adult males pose a danger to children. The policy has also been criticised for failing to take female abusers into consideration as well as ignoring instances of children who commit sex offences.  As with the British Airways case some critics made the link between such policies and wider problems in society such as the shortage of male teachers, with others drawing parallels with the case of Rosa Parks.

Some have defended the policy however, with NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People Gillian Calvert stating that there were more male sex offenders than female and thus "in the absence of any other test, it's one way in which the airline can reduce the risk of children travelling alone". She believes that the likelihood of an attack was rare but not impossible claiming "it's only a few men who do this sort of stuff, but when they do it they diminish all men". Air New Zealand spokesman David Jamieson said the company had no intention of reviewing the policy and admitted that it had been in place for many years.

See also

Child pornography

Child sex abuse

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