Last night, I remembered a British Airways commercial I was in back in 1988. I wondered if it might be online, so I searched for it, found a commercial that didn’t look familiar at all, and watched it to see if I might be in it. I didn’t see myself, but the more I watched, the more familiar it seemed. I watched it again, and paid attention to the close-up shots on people. I saw a young girl talking to a pilot and thought, “She has a cute face,” then I realized it was me!
In 1988, I had been forced back home to live with my parents in Utah, trying to save some money before heading back out into the world. I booked a British Airways commercial, cast as a “rucksack girl”, aka “backpack girl.”
The shoot took place in Moab, the red rock desert in southern Utah. Moab is famous for its surreal landscape, rock archways, and its magnificent views. The cast and crew all stayed in a one-level motel with doors that opened directly into a parking lot. It felt exciting to be in my own hotel room, I mean motel room, for the first time. It was a rough 4am wake-up call, and if you know the desert, you know the temperature often drastically drops at night, no matter how hot it gets during the day. I stumbled into hair, makeup, and wardrobe while half asleep. I was given an outfit I didn’t love: blue jean bermuda shorts and a blue top. They gave me a backpack to carry and stuffed a few shirts into it to give it some weight and a “realistic look”. We filmed out on a gorgeous red cliff all day. My filming time lasted about ten minutes, and the rest of the day, I laid on the smooth warm red rock, ate snacks from the snack table, and watched filming. The commercial was directed by a famous director, Hugh Hudson, and it ended up winning awards for its innovative ideas. It aired during the Superbowl in 1988, and back then there was no replay. You hoped you were watching your tv when your commercial came on. My family screamed when they saw me flash onscreen for one second. I would run in from the other room, but I never did see my own commercial.
I wonder if the commercial is what inspired me to become a backpacker, because at the time, I had never met one, or even heard of one? Whether it did or not, one year later, I packed my things into one big backpack, went to Santa Monica College Abroad for six weeks, then I bought a Eurail pass for $250 and spent the next six weeks hopping on and off trains all over Europe. It was a fantastic adventure, with equal parts: “I’m cold, dirty, and hungry and I want to go home” and “This is the greatest experience of my life! I never want to go home!”
