Vanity Fair UK – September 2019

By PETER YORK

British Airways is marking its centenary, but 40 years ago it

was a troubled airline until it hired an audacious ad agency.

Together, they came to embody the myths of the 1980s

THE NATION’S FAVOURITE

Advert

I

t’s the sound you recognise first, as

a mass of red-capped swimmers

strike out for the shore in British

Airways’ famous 1989 television

advert, “The Face”. For most, this

ad will be nothing more than a distant

memory, but, without it, BA might never

have reached the big 100.

The noise comes from a pair of exultant

operatic sopranos at full tilt, sounding

almost like a synthesised 19th-century

anthem—laid over a modern rhythm

track which clearly is synthesised.

The whole thing is a reworking of the

“Flower Duet” from Léo Delibes’ 1883

opera Lakmé, developed by Malcolm

McLaren and Yanni, the Greek New Age

musician, to make a seamless, plasticised

sound. The rest of the commercial is

pretty spectacular, too; the red-capped

swimmers morph into a big lipsticked

mouth before they reassemble as a giant

pair of lips on a huge empty beach, all shot

from way above in the air long before the

invention of the drone. Against dramatic

scenery (it was filmed in Utah), huge

groups of brightly dressed people form

and reform themselves into more moving

images shot from above—a white ear; a

red, black and white face with a winking

eye; then a world map.

It’s intercut with beautiful people

of all nations hugging against a swirly

Union flag background. The whole thing

is a compelling and vastly expensive

commercial “synaesthesia”, executed for

BA by a dream team

of talents.

The director

was Hugh Hudson

of Chariots of Fire

fame; the music was

EYE CONTACT

Saatchi & Saatchi’s

1989 “Face” advert

for British Airways

captured the

decade just before

GE the dream fell apart

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SEPTEMBER 2019 VANITY FAIR EN ROUTE

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