Here we go again. There’s a new ad and it’s got lakhs of views on YouTube and everyone seems to love it – and I don’t.
The ad is the new British Airways six-and-a-half minute commercial, ‘Fuelled by Love’. “In this ad, British Airways gives us a simple, beautiful story about falling in love with India. England and India have always had a complicated relationship, but British Airways just sent a love letter to India on Britain’s behalf. It’s the simple, true story of flight attendant Helena Flynn, whose generous nature led to a connection with an even more generous Indian grandmother,” gushes Adweek, a leading and respected publication focused on advertising.
As I read praise all over the place, I try to decode what makes me reject this ad. The ad is well produced and directed, the casting seems perfect, the dialogues are delivered effortlessly, the accents are real, and it’s a syrupy-sweet story with a happy ending.
The happy ending is my first reason for rejection. When you’re about a minute into watching this spot, you can predict precisely how the story ends, reducing the need for you to watch for another five-plus minutes in this attention-deficit world we live in.
The second reason for rejection is far more important – the believability.
Even a cynic like me finds it easy to believe that the commercial is, indeed, inspired by a true incident. But if the intended message is to suggest that Indian passengers will find the cabin crew on BA flights as warm and friendly as the attendant we see in the film, it doesn’t work for me. It’s not just BA. It’s the category. Check out Google for ‘British Airways racism’ or ‘Lufthansa racism’ or ‘United Airlines racism’ and so on. The results do not make for happy reading.
In most cases, it is the individual who has racist leanings, not the airline – and that’s the problem. The attitude of an individual is all but impossible to monitor or guarantee – and that makes one question the cornerstone of the BA film.
Any brand would like to make a unique claim or promise to get out of cluttered messaging, and BA has chosen this route. The believable claims are mundane and common-or-garden, including convenient timings, comfortable seating or sleeping, more leg room, more flights, better connectivity, phone and internet connectivity on-time performance, safety record and so on.
It’s safer to stick to the mundane but believable than to dabble in the esoteric and tough-to-believe. In this case, the well-travelled will reject the message. A first-time traveller might well believe it – and find himself disappointed. Even if none of the crew is racist, it is well-nigh impossible for well-intentioned attendants to shower so much attention on a single passenger, overworked as they are. It then becomes a gap between the promise and the delivery. What gets my goat is the ‘love’.
BA needn’t have gone the whole hog and shown love for Indians. There are many opportunities short of love; it could underline that the airline understood Indians and our idiosyncrasies, it could highlight their attention to Indian food, including vegetarian and Jain options, it could tom-tom the range of Bollywood movies that are available and so on.
The love is an unnecessary distraction and could mean many things to many people, making it difficult to define and measure.
BA has obviously tried to create an emotional reason for consumers to embrace the airline – and in this category, that’s a tall order. Sometimes it’s the simple that works and the complicated is, well, like the India-England relationship, complicated.
The writer is Editor, Storyboard
