Charismatic Virgin

Virgin is a brand that has always had some emotional significance and meaning for me. As a young man through the 1970s and 80s I dreamed of being a professional singer- songwriter and one of the most inspiring meetings I've ever had in my life was with an A&R executive at Virgin records who was interested in signing a band I was in. In the end it never happened but that is another story.
Virgin represented a gateway to a world where everything and anything might be possible.

Even when, back in 1985, the girlfriend (now wife) of a very close friend of mine became a Virgin flight attendant it seemed like the most glamorous job in the world and we were all very excited for her and she herself felt she was on the cusp of a universe of new adventures. Flying away from the greyness of everyday routine into exotic faraway lands where people smiled in the sunshine and danced their way into the early hours to Wham's Club Tropicana and the beat of electro pop.

All seems highly ridiculous thinking about it now.

However, seeing this commercial last year brought back much of that excitement and emotional response that the Virgin brand had surfaced in my youth. So I suspended my middle aged scepticism and my retrospective, negative evaluation of the 1980's 'greed is good' culture and wallowed in the shallows of a very narcissistic, often naive and yet innocent age gone by.