Cathay Pacific makes the right call: PR industry

The photographs, showing a female flight attendant with a male pilot, first appeared in Chinese newspapers in early August. The airline was quick to launch an investigation. Upon confirming that both people depicted were indeed employees, they were dismissed.

But the images have still been quickly distributed around the world. On August 14, it was revealed that Cathay Pacific would hold back on its planned campaign launch. The second phase of its 'Meet the team that goes the extra mile to give you good service' campaign was due to roll out globally form 1 September. The airline says it will now wait until 1 October to begin the campaign - which aims to make mini-celebrities out of 100 Cathay Pacific staff.

One week on from that decision, Paul Mottram, executive vice president, Asia-Pacific, Bite Communications, says the move to delay was a sensible one, with no real down side for the airline. "Putting a few weeks between this week's big story and a global marketing campaign is probably the prudent thing to do," he told Campaign.

Rachel Catanach, managing director, senior vice president and senior partner of Fleishman-Hillard Hong Kong, agreed. She says the airline was right to do everything it could to protect its campaign from potential mockery online. "Cathay Pacific’s brand proposition is centred on superior service so these photos indeed compromise the brand and would have made a mockery of the advertising campaign," she said. "If it had gone ahead, the campaign would have been lampooned, or worse."

Evidence of that possibility can be seen through the rapid way the story has circulated throughout the world. In the Philippines, "Cathay Pacific scandal" was found to be the fastest-growing news topic last week. The actual images themselves - both the original and the censored versions published in Chinese newspapers - have gone even more 'viral'.

But Catanach says the pictures themselves will only do short-term damage to Cathay Pacific's brand.

"These photos are unfortunate but they are not permanently damaging for the brand," she told Campaign. "Cathay Pacific moved quickly and decisively to manage the situation and demonstrate that this sort of behavior would not be tolerated. The event is not likely to exert any real influence over people who are deciding whether or not to travel with the airline."

Mottram says a month-long delay should be enough to allow "a very good" campaign to roll out without the current distraction.