[ExBritNStuff]

It's not an advertisement, the BBC are explicitly not allowed to provide that kind of content. Also, you've got to understand the mentality of someone when they are stressed and scared. They wouldn't be thinking straight and the fairly simple task of following a line on Google Maps becomes much harder. Additionally, when dealing with navigating in rural locations, it's not as simple as just 'go in straight line to place X'. There is terrain to navigate around, which is not obvious in the dark, especially when you're not familiar with the location.

They had obviously got to the point of calling the emergency services, so let's make it easier for them to be located, rather than complaining that they should have just got their compass out and sucked it up.

[johnday]

Just because the BBC didn't know it was an advertisement doesn't mean it isn't an advertisement. I have sent an email to their news team encouraging them to re-read the article and letting them know that they may be accidentally promoting a product. I suspect their editors may have mistaken the "scientific" skin of the article as being of academic interest rather than of business interest.