ASA Nixes British Airways Ad Featuring Canton Fair

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned a British Airways ad showing scenes of the Canton Fair because British Airways does not fly to Guangzhou, China, where the Fair takes place.

From the ruling:

The ASA noted that connections could be made to Guangzhou from Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. However, we considered that the specific focus on the Canton Fair in the voice-over and visuals, alongside the claim "Right now, somewhere in the world, is a great business opportunity. And no one can fly you to more of them, direct from the UK, than British Airways", would be understood by consumers to mean that the Canton Fair was one of the business opportunities that BA flew direct to from the UK. Because we understood that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2 and 5.1.3 (Misleading advertising).