Watch the full ad here:

Zaid's thoughts:

"I distinctly recall Jeremy Sinclair presenting British Airways “Face” to me and my colleagues as a fresh-faced graduate learning my trade at Procter & Gamble. Today I’m proud to celebrate it as a core part of Saatchi folklore, created just as the acrimonious Saatchi split took place, when Maurice, Charles, David & Jeremy founded M+C Saatchi with British Airways as our first client - a relationship which lasted two decades, and spawned some of the most memorable ads of recent times.

“Face” is an iconic piece of advertising which flipped traditional airline marketing on its head, focusing not on the plane, or the journey (and certainly not on the price!) but instead on the reason for travelling. It represents the pinnacle of 80’s cinematic advertising, directed as it was by Hugh Hudson, already an Oscar winner for Chariots of Fire. Hugh was one of the famous British ad directors who took over Hollywood, alongside Alan Parker, and brothers Tony & Ridley Scott.

“Face” is visionary in both concept and execution, uniting literally thousands of people to form the features of a happy face, bringing to life the emotional payoff of flying - to be with other people - all whilst making the world feel simultaneously huge, and yet simple to traverse. Alongside a series of other iconic ads, each accompanied by a soaring classical soundtrack, this campaign turned British Airway’s fortunes around to become the ‘world’s favourite airline’. I have no doubt that the emotional punch which drives “Face” is as relevant today as it was then. Advertising since the 1980’s has often been as conceptually powerful, but as budgets have diminished it has rarely reached these heights of executional scale.

The promise of AI means we should soon see a resurgence in cinematic ambition. If that means more ads like “Face”, I can’t wait."