It’s an ad–but not some tiny little offhand ad or a local ad.
It’s a two-page color ad, on special heavyweight slick paper, in a very large circulation national magazines.
The ad’s from British Airways. It’s about an impressive program, one in which BA flies “hundreds of small business owners” to meet with potential partners…for free.
And here’s the first sentence of the first paragraph of the actual ad copy:
Last year British Airways launched it’s Face-to-Face program and awarded hundreds of small businesses free flights and other services to nurture their business growth.
The. very. first. sentence. Yes, I know, British English and American English differ in some ways. Not this way, however: “It’s” is not a possessive in either language.
Is this stuff that hard? Shouldn’t copywriters at least have a basic command of the language?