SAATCHI & SAATCHI

he new £1.4m press and television promotion is being unveiled today before the official worldwide launch on 3 April. It replaces existing advertisements featuring thousands of people forming the outline of a human face in a desert.

British Airways is reviewing its £60m campaign budget after hostilities between Saatchi & Saatchi and its founders. New Saatchi, formed by Maurice Saatchi, is pitching against his old firm for the business.

BA claims that the new ad, again filmed by Hugh (Chariots of Fire) Hudson, will be seen by the biggest worldwide audience in advertising history - 920 million - on its launch next month. "That's what the people who calculate these things tell us, anyway,'' a spokeswoman said.

The theme once again is people from around the world coming together. This shot shows a Russian ballet dancer, Dimitri Romanov, with a South African tribal dancer.

Meanwhile, German airline Deutsche BA, in which British Airways has a 49 per cent stake, said it plans closer links with the UK carrier in the run-up to full deregulation of Europe's air travel market in 1987. More feeder services and development of new routes for BA out of Deutsche BA's Munich and Berlin hubs are the top priorities, said managing director Richard Heideker.