This month British Airways managers have been left scratching their heads as they’ve seen a huge increase in the number of High Life magazines disappearing from their aircraft.But it now seems to be an open and shut case as the culprit has been found – it’s thanks to April’s cover star, Benedict Cumberbatch, whose fans have been taking copies of the magazine home with them and auctioning them on social media sites and eBay.
The lead feature in this month’s High Life sees the star take on the frozen lake of Hameenlinna in Finland for a Jaguar ice-driving course.
The interest started when Cedar Communications, who produce British Airways’ High Life in-flight magazine, tweeted preview pictures of the magazine cover. Tens of thousands of Cumberbatch fans reacted quickly and retweeted the image.
Behind the scenes pictures tweeted by the article’s photographer and author quickly followed suit and fans began recreating images from the shoot in various art forms from cupcakes to digital giffs.
In less than a week the story has reached over one million people on Twitter* and is continuing to circulate within the media.
Abigail Comber, British Airways’ head of marketing, said: “We love the reaction we’ve had from customers both on flights and across social media and it’s testament to a great edition when we have to re-stock our aircraft!”
Kerry Smith, High Life’s editor, said: “We are thrilled with the response so far. We always strive to create the best-in-class content and Benedict Cumberbatch is quickly proving the most popular cover star we have ever had in our 41-year history. And that takes some doing thanks to a long line of British cover stars including Heston Blumenthal, Tracy Emin and Bradley Wiggins.”
