BA Spoofs Fenton Viral In Latest Campaign

Is it a dog? Is it a plane? Actually, it's both in the latest social video ad from BA.

As a teaser to their London 2012 campaign, the UK's flag carrier airline has created a stealth campaign based on the famous Fenton the Dog YouTube hit.

However, instead of the dog chasing deer around Richmond Park, it shows a young pup called Cookie running after a BA plane.

Of course, it is not the first time advertisers have tried to hijack existing YouTube memes to try and get noticed. Over the last seven days alone we have seen ASPCA's Hovercat and the Abercrombie's version of Call Me Maybe come to the fore.

However, meme spin-offs haven't always worked well in advertising, with campaigns such as Microsoft's Windows Live Photo Gallery advert being heavily criticised for featuring the Double Rainbow internet meme. 

Time will tell if this one pays off. The campaign was designed to generate buzz around a new London 2012 campaign from BA, released a few days later.

It features a plane taxiing through London, with an accompanying Facebook page allowing you to enter your postcode and see the plane pass your own street.

Disclosure: Unruly is distributing this video on behalf of BA. This post is not part of the commercial plan and is written by the editorial team at Unruly, whose opinions are always independent, sometimes scurrilous, and never knowingly under-researched.