The Bunny Club Airline

The people who brought you the Beatles, miniskirts, Tom Jones, cashmere sweaters and Robin Hood want to invite you to get to know some of us better.

--BOAC commercial on U.S. radio stations last week.

Better, indeed. In half a dozen.American cities this month, British Overseas Airways Corp. began promoting a $350 round-trip air excursion to England that included more than the usual palace-to-pub tour. BOAC's 13-day "The Beautiful Singles of London" tour offered Yankee tourists the added incentive of meeting three "scientifically chosen" British dates at airline-organized cocktail parties. There was even more in store for those who signed up.

After "two free drinks at each party," the tourists and their dates were offered dinner for two at proper Simpson's-in-the-Strand, temporary membership and gambling privileges at the Victoria Sporting Club, a pair of tickets to a West End musical or play, and free admission to eleven dizzy discotheques and five dance halls. Ticket holders would also be entitled to hotel reservations, private bath and "full English breakfast," though it was not promised that the "scientifically chosen" date would share those. Surprisingly enough, the seemingly irresistible BOAC tour did not get off the ground.

The failure was hardly the fault of BOAC's U.S. marketing manager Eric Engledew, 49, a happily married father of two who conceived the idea. His strategy was simple. By tapping the lucrative American singles market, capitalizing on the now well-established computer dating craze in the U.S., and wrapping it all up into a package tour of a foreign country where the girls all speak English, BOAC could earn a bigger slice of the transatlantic air trade it has to share with American carriers.

BOAC talked a New York agency, Arthur Frommer's $5-a-Day Tours, into handling the bookings, and scheduled the first flight for Nov. 1. Launching their advertising campaign, BOAC officials sat back to watch Britain's balance of payments deficit turn into a surplus. "We hope," a spokesman said, "that the accent is on entertainment rather than sex."

Actually, the accent was on criticism --most of it from members of Parliament, who have a proprietary interest in government-supported BOAC. "A bunny club airline," groused Peter Bessell, a Liberal from Cornwall. "BOAC says such a project will earn dollars for Britain, but some might argue that prostitution does the same thing." Kenneth Lewis, a Conservative from Rutland and Stamford, threatened to take the matter before the House of Commons and treat it as an affront to British maidenhood. "A British girl," he thundered, "is perfectly capable of making her own dates--and so are American men." The Sunday Times chided: "There are visions of the flower of English womanhood being sold into lusty American servitude for the benefit of our sordid balance of payments. Poor old BOAC cannot win." Nonetheless, the airline fought on. "We're only offering them dates," spokesmen insisted, "not promising marriage."

Leading Questions. The worst was yet to come. A London scandal sheet reported that the firm tentatively contacted --but not actually hired--to do the "scientific" matching was a fly-by-night, husband-wife outfit operating out of a one-room office next to a fish-and-chips shop, apparently without even the benefit of a computer. The firm's "managing director" offered samples of questionnaires he had used in previous matchmaking schemes. Typical inquiries included: "Do you consider yourself sexy?" "Do you consider sex important?" "Have you a very strong sexual urge?" "Are you against premarital relationships?" "Is your physical shape good?" (Not to be confused with, "Are you in good health?"). The reason for such leading questions, he explained to a reporter, was "to separate the dolly birds from the school ma'ams."

The answers were apparently quite revealing. "We've got a lot of swinging dollies on our books who'll be only too delighted to welcome the Americans with open arms," boasted the managing director. Unwisely, as it turned out.

Completely undone by the unexpected publicity, BOAC last week abruptly canceled the controversial flights. It was all just as well. Despite attractive advertising, only two Americans had signed on to swing with the beautiful people in London, the airline admitted, and both of them were women.

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