British Airways | 2024
British Airways' "Windows": No Logo, No Words, Just Passengers' Faces Telling the Story of Travel / BRITISH AIRWAYS "Windows"
No logo. No text. No QR code. British Airways' outdoor ad "Windows" doesn't show the view from the plane window—it shows only the faces of passengers looking at that view.
The problem
In an age when budget airlines compete purely on price, airlines have left behind the magic of travel itself. British Airways' "A British Original" platform is normally a vehicle for all sorts of functional messages, but what this poster needed was the opposite: simplicity, stripped down as far as it could go.
The insight
Passengers always photograph what's outside the window. So what if you flipped the camera around and photographed the passengers' faces instead of the view? Somewhere in their expressions, the reason for their journey comes through. It was a bet that the less you say, the stronger the message becomes.
The idea
Photographer Christopher Anderson captured the expressions of passengers gazing out the window at 35,000 feet. Eleven different prints were displayed at 324 locations across the UK, mounted high up so that the people in the photos appeared to be looking down at passersby below. At Piccadilly Circus, the visual came to life, with the figure waving down to the street.
What happened
The campaign won one Gold and three Silver Lions at Cannes Lions 2024. It reached 26 million people in the UK, and ad awareness hit its highest level since January 2023, up 73% compared to the same week the previous year. The website received 34,800 visits.
Afterthought
"Only the truly iconic brands can say less," said Nils Leonard of Uncommon. The courage to go without a logo or words. It turns out the faces looking through the window spoke far more eloquently than the view itself.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2024
Featured in
- The Product Is Nowhere to Be SeenHow choosing not to show became the boldest statement of all
