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Airbus Industrie, the European aircraft consortium, is running its first

consumer advertising campaign in an effort to reduce some of the

distance between itself and its US rival, Boeing.

The pounds 10 million-plus global campaign through Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper

has been launched to increase the credibility of the Airbus brand among

large-scale buyers of aircraft, such as British Airways, which currently

have exclusive deals with Boeing.

‘At the moment, buying Boeing is like buying IBM - nobody ever got fired

for doing it,’ Paul Uhart, Euro RSCG’s account director, said. ‘But we

want to make it clear that Airbus is no longer just the young challenger

and is now equal to Boeing.

‘We don’t want aircraft buyers to have to explain why they bought

Airbus,’ Uhart added.

Five television executions have been made, each showing a different

passenger benefit of the Airbus. The 30-second set-pieces focus on

advantages, such as quieter cabins and the fact that business passengers

on long-haul jets only ever sit two abreast.

The television and press ads, which make covert references to Boeing,

will appear in more than 100 countries. Media is being handled by

Mediastar.

The campaign has been launched to coincide with this week’s Farnborough

Airshow, where much of the deal-making in the multi-billion pound civil

and military aircraft industry is done.

The advertising campaign to improve Airbus’s profile comes ahead of the

launch of the manufacturer’s new generation of ‘super jumbos’, which

will be capable of carrying almost 1,000 passengers. The stakes are

extremely high, with Boeing and other smaller rivals all racing to

produce 500-plus seater aircraft as well.

The ads, shot in Los Angeles, were art directed by Mark Riley and

copywritten by Tim Garth. They were directed by Mark Storey through

Cowboy Films.