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This is from British Airways (see: 6:21-6:25) At the end of the video, it says:

Loving India back since 1924.

I can't quite understand, why it says "....back since..." instead of "since 1924"?. Or Is the "...back.." part of "...love back.."?

I am confused about why the sentence has a "back". Does it mean:

1-We have been loving India since 1924. (back meaning very old like "back in 1800s")

2-India loves us and we have been loving it back since 1924. (back meaning a mutuality)

1 Answer 1

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The intention is your (2), "India loves us and we have been loving them back since 1924".

1924 is the first year that British Airways started flying to India, thus "loving them back" in the sense of reciprocity.

This particular ad campaign was famously very poorly received, see

https://www.mic.com/articles/134288/this-dubious-new-british-airways-ad-speaks-volumes-about-how-white-people-see-indians for more details as well as to verify that people read this as your (2), above.

Compare with "Loving India since way back in the 1920s", as might be said if (1) was intended.

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    This is a good answer but I'm not so sure the short film was received so negatively. Not everyone was forthcoming in praise but I did read some positive reviews: blog.northpointindia.com/british-airways-fuelled-by-love and here shrutichaturvedi.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/…
    – Mari-Lou A
    Aug 1 at 12:00
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    @Mari-LouA Ads and PR pieces are always self-serving. And the more sentimental the piece, the greater the callousness it seeks to address. A frolicking family of sea otters is the reciprocal of ecological disaster. In this case BA is having to assuage the fears of British tourists uneasy with India's social unrest and its move towards authoritarianism. Expect to see similar soon in the tourism ads for Florida and Texas.
    – TimR
    Aug 1 at 13:01
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    @Tim the ad was released in 2016, so I'm not so sure about the motivation behind it was. To increase flight tickets, certainly. Regardless, I thought the directing, the script and its message of generosity and acceptance is to be applauded.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Aug 1 at 14:02
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    @Mari-LouA Well, there had been considerable social unrest in India for quite a while. gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/india/safety-and-security (Mar 20, 2013) <meta name="govuk:first-published-at" content="2013-03-18T15:39:35Z">
    – TimR
    Aug 1 at 17:54

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