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Hello Creative Folks,
Here is a question for all of you: How do you sell “magic” in a category that trained everyone to treat it like a bus ticket? Airlines keep shouting about destinations and deals, and the whole category turns into background noise.
The Thesis
British Airways bet on a simple reversal: stop showing the plane. Stop showing the place. Show the person.
Because your brain doesn’t bond with “premium economy.” It bonds with faces, emotion, and tiny human moments you recognize instantly.
The Event
In the “Windows” campaign, BA zooms in tight on passengers as they look out of an aircraft window. No big copy. No hard sell. Just that quiet, private look people get when the world turns into a movie outside the glass.
The Mechanism
This works because it hijacks three reliable bits of applied psychology.
First, it uses emotional contagion. When you see awe on someone’s face, you feel a little of it too. That’s the fastest shortcut to “I want that.”
Second, it creates a curiosity loop. The missing context makes you lean in. Your brain tries to complete the story, which makes the ad stick.
Third, it reduces persuasion resistance. You don’t feel like someone is pitching you. You feel like you’re witnessing something. That shifts you from skeptical to open.
The Pattern
This is a broader move premium brands are making now: they win by subtracting, not adding. When a category gets loud, quiet becomes a power move. BA stops competing on claims and starts competing on feeling.
The Framework
Use this when your category feels commoditized.
Flip the camera: Stop filming the product. Film the person experiencing the product.
Compress to one moment: Find the single instant that holds the emotional truth. BA chose the window gaze.
Signal confidence through restraint: Remove the stuff that screams “ad.”
The Application
BA’s execution nails those rules with discipline.
They crop tight on the passenger’s face so you can’t escape the emotion.
They keep branding minimal, which signals status and trust in recognition.
They use warm, romantic light to make the moment feel like memory, not marketing.
They even use CGI to “rebuild” the plane around the subject so the intimacy feels impossible in normal production.
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The Synthesis
British Airways didn’t try to convince you they’re premium. They made you remember why flying ever felt premium in the first place. That’s the whole game. When you make the familiar feel new, you don’t need to shout to be heard.
P.S.
Next time you brief a campaign, ask yourself one question: what’s the “window moment” in your category, the tiny scene people love but everyone stopped noticing? Film that. Strip everything else.
Figment is written by Abbhinav Kastura, a writer/producer who has spent a decade making impactful internet videos and Guru Nicketan, an advertising nerd, B2B Marketer, stand-up comedian, and a film buff.
