On 18th August you can be sure the media will be full of wall-to-wall pictures of pretty 18-year-old girls collecting their A-level results. But if you thought these shots owed anything to chance, or more likely journalists doing the legwork to find the prettier female students themselves, think again. The FT reveals an even more unsavoury practice today as it seems the marketing of some of England's fee paying schools stretches to pimping out their girls to secure coverage. The paper's Chris Cook writes:
"Last year, I received an unsolicited voicemail from the press liaison at Badminton School in Bristol...'wanting to give ...some details of some absolutely beyootiful girls we've got here who are getting their A-level results tomorrow'..."
Meanwhile Cook adds that "Bedales School in Hampshire... supplies photos..."
But there is worse:
"Most alarmingly, another (very grand) private school invited the FT... to an end-of-year sports event [and] said that watching the girls playing sports would have given ...a unique opportunity to pick out promising candidates for A-level day pictures."
I felt dirty just reading that sports day quote.
Posted by: Chris | Aug 02, 2011 at 17:27