British Airways has just generated a huge amount of free publicity for Richard Branson and Virgin -- and made itself look petty and stupid -- by cutting them out of the in-flight version of the James Bond movie, Casino Royale.
The BBC reports that "Sir Richard was seen briefly in the original film, passing through an airport security scanner, but can only be seen from behind in the new edit." (Branson got a cameo role after providing a plane for the film.) Further: "The British Airways edit also obscures the tail fin of a Virgin plane that was seen in the original."
The BBC did get a response from BA:
"We do reserve the right to edit films, and many films are edited in some way on board," said a spokesman.
In other words, a BA spokesman fluffed the chance to redeem the airline by saying something like: "This was a dumb thing to do, and we don't have a clue how it happened, but we're really not that petty. We'll send Branson a crate of his favourite wine, restore the original movie and reprimand whoever did it." Unless, of course, BA really is that petty....
