Ad Nut
Mar 31, 2016

Cathay Pacific's Rugby Sevens promo heaped with well-deserved scorn

From Hong Kong: 'Welcome aboard the party' for Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific's Rugby Sevens promo heaped with well-deserved scorn

This is a promo video for the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens. Ad Nut is having a hard time believing it is real. But sure enough, there it is on the brand's YouTube channel and Facebook page. As difficult as it is to believe, Ad Nut is forced to conclude that Cathay Pacific did this on purpose.

Here are some of the lyrics:

Drop the landing gear, grab yourself a beer
It's time to come together, cos the party is here


Remove obstructions to cheer your team,
our smoke detectors are real mean

Do a Mexican wave with the girls in red,
Or do the Hong Kong shake instead

Unbuckle those belts boys, let it all out
It's a party, so scream and shout!

Here are some questions:

  • Why are your smoke detectors mean? Why did you make this play like an in-flight safety video gone bad?  
  • Are you really advising men to unbuckle their belts and 'let it all out'? Didn't some Cathay employees get in trouble for something like that a few years ago?

Ad Nut doesn't know what else to say that commenters on Facebook have not already said:

Chris Tang: 'Comical' four-eyed Asian man dressed as Bruce Lee and Superman, fat drunken white executive in beer bottle costume, white pilot, black trumpet player, white rugby player with all his 'brute strength' tackling what look like 3 cigarette costumes, pretty Chinese Hong Kong girls acting as singers. CX, could you have crammed more cliches and damaging impressions in 1 minute? Where are the Samoans, where are the Japanese, the Fijians and the Kiwi/Maori fans and players, and the Hong Kong players for that. Where are the Indian and Filipino cabin crew and local Hong Kong pilots? This video goes out to the world and this is what you want the world to see Hong Kong as. I'm disappointed, I expected more from this. What a shambles.

Ali Bullock: Did you guys pay for this or was this a free project from some interns?

Andrew Loiterton: what no budget this year?

Mike Ellis What an awful advert. Was it produced by kindergaten kids?

Nathaniel Isack: Promos going down hill, just like the services.

For the record, Ad Nut needs to know, and is trying to find out, what agency (if any) perpetrated this delightfully awful travesty.

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Source:
Campaign Asia

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