Attempts to cloud BA’s judgement

The importance of the ú60m British Airways pitch has never been in question. But the “all singing, all dancing” lengths that the four agencies went to last week to impress the BA team visiting their offices has surprised even the most hard bitten in the advertising world.

J Walter Thompson redecorated its offices and dressed up its pitch teams to make the airline feel at home. “It was just like when your mother-in-law comes round for Sunday lunch,” says one insider, playing down the arrangements. Saatchi & Saatchi also had the decorators in to create a space-style environment – complete with a static-creating Van der Graff generator to heighten the effect – rumoured to cost ú100,000. Bartle Bogle Hegarty and the New Saatchi Agency are understood to have had a less showbusiness-like approach to the pitch but, in true showbiz style, the Diary is told the winner will be announced in reverse order at the end of the month.