British Caledonian

Caledonian Girls 1982 United Kingdom

OK, now back to a time when air hostesses (as they are still sometimes known in the UK) would provide kindness and grace to joyful businessmen, singing to the tune of "California Girls" from the Beach Boys... at least on the TV commercials! The sight of these otherwise serious people giving the Caledonian Girls this kind of a show is amusing. But wait a second... in terms of advertising, the tune is catchy, however we are never really told what is so special about British Caledonian, other than the fact that its air hostesses are pretty AND local. On the other hand, we are told by the singing businessmen the cultural stereotypes: the Far Eastern women are graceful, the Germans are always on time, and so on...

"I've flown with U.S. airlines, and the girls are really nice
And those beautiful Far Eastern girls, do splendid things with rice (!)
German girls are so correct, and the planes are never late
But there's only one girl we want to see, as we reach the departure gate..."

View this commercial (downloadable MPEG file, 3.33 MB, from The Night of the AdEaters)

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