TOP SCHOOL RAIDS LARA CONNECTION
Copyright 2001 www.tombraiderchronicles.com Source: The Times

[ July 2nd 2001 ]

Gordonstoun School is to capitalise on it's association with Core Designs British aristocrat Lara Croft after being given free access to specially created footage which will be used in a series of advertisements to herald the Paramount motion picture, The Times reports today:

Eidos, the creator of Lara Croft, the computer game character played in the film version by Angelina Jolie, placed its heroine at the school in her virtual biography. Eidos neither sought consent nor paid a fee for the privilege of saying that Lara attended Gordonstoun for her sixth-form studies and fell in love with its outdoor and activity-led regime. The Scottish school is credited with giving her a love of climbing and shooting she is said to have displayed too keen an interest in the latter but to date the only sign of the Tomb Raider connection has been a model of Lara on the mantlepiece of Mark Pyper, the headmaster.

Gordonstoun has taught three generations of royal children and Princess Anne has been a governor for six years.It says that the Lara link has been a boon for its marketing budget. Angela Harkness, director of development, said that no strongarm tactics were used on the game’s inventors to secure what she called the ad bargain of the century. "It has all been very easy, they wanted to make a gesture and we said thank you very much," she said. "It is quite a coup for us. We never made a fuss when Eidos used the school for Lara we know they made the right choice but it would be daft for us not to capitalise on it."

A three minute commercial advertising the private school will be screened across 400 UK cinemas on Friday 6th June and will feature Lara Croft with two former Gordonstoun schoolgirls; Pollyanna Murray, who went on to climb Mount Everest and Rebecca Ridgewaya, who single-handedly sailed around Cape Horn.