A Very British Hotel Chain: Inside Best Western, C4 ★★★
Over on Channel 4 last night the Best Western hotel group’s board members were trying to decide who should star in their latest Christmas advert.
They had three possibles. Goats, donkeys or some excitable children pretending to be politicians.
In the end they went for the second option. Presumably because donkeys are more Christmassy than goats and also because they figured that if people wanted to watch a bunch of five-year-olds pretending to be politicians they could just switch on the BBC’S Parliament channel.
Sadly, the ad was for last Christmas so in terms of bookings we’ll never really know whether they made the right choice. Do check the ad out on You Tube though. It’s quite a piece of work.
It’s equally hard to call whether this three-part documentary will be much of an asset to Best Western’s business once normal life has resumed.
To be fair, it probably has resulted in a spike in internet searches for the hotel chain – although I’m guessing that would mainly have been from viewers checking it wasn’t an elaborate
Channel 4 spoof. If it wasn’t a wind-up it would mean that, 17 years after The Office was last on TV, there really is a business in the UK that has motivational posters ordering its staff to “Give a sh**, own it, be courageous, beat yesterday.”
No word on whether CEO Rob is a friend first, boss second, probably an entertainer third.
However, I can confirm he is refreshingly laid back for a man with such responsibility.
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Do check the ad out on Youtube, it’s quite a piece of work