11880 Telegate - Plane (2001, Germany)
By 2001, German phone directory service 11880 Telegate (now 11880 Solutions) had been running ads with the tagline "11880: Da werden Sie geholfen" (11880 – There you will be helped) for several years. While the tagline was popular and helped cement Telegate as popular phone service, executives started to fear that the popularity of the tagline was starting to eclipse the service itself (reportedly, people remembered the tagline, but not the number). As 11880 Telegate started to expand to other services such as flight information and restaurant reservations, the decision was made to retire the slogan and reveal their new slogan, "11880: ...die kennt sich aus-kunft" (11880 knows its way around (information)).
Knowing that Telegate wanted something big to catch people's attention, Harald Prantner from the McCann-Erickson advertising agency decided to go Hollywood. His proposal to the company was to destroy the old slogan in a big spectacle. The first advert would consist of a large passenger plane flying into a building and destroying a billboard containing the old slogan, debris falling onto the screaming crowds below. Another ad was to show a Godzilla-like monster destroying the same building. Telegate approved of the concept and the next four months were spent on creating the commercials for the campaign. The campaign cost one million German marks at the time (roughly ~€820,000 today).
Controversy
Telegate's Plane commercial began airing on German television on September 9th, 2001. The marketing team and Telegate were proud of their work, and even planned to send a copy of the commercial to the New York Festivals Advertising Awards, although the package containing the ad was "left behind" and never sent. Any reports of the commercial's initial reception within the general public have not resurfaced as of writing.
On September 11, 2001, Telegate executives watched in horror as their new ad played out in real life as hijacked airliners flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, debris falling onto the screaming crowds below. Telegate immediately ordered that the commercial be pulled from all stations immediately. Within days, another set of commercials, meant to air weeks later, took its place. It is unknown if the Godzilla commercial ever aired, but it is very unlikely, and a copy of that ad has not resurfaced.
In an 2010 interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Prantner admitted that the experience still disturbed him.
Trivia
- Prantner's firm (likely working for 11880 Telegate) had planned to air a commercial in 2000 featuring model Verona Feldbusch as a firebreather who singes her hair off, but was cancelled after the Kaprun fire disaster.
References and Links
Last updated: 2026-04-27