Flubbing the Rub-a-Dub-Dub

"Put a bit of romance into your bath by sharing the water," reads the ad. "You would be amazed how much gas you save." Appearing in English newspapers, the promotion is part of a fuel-conservation drive by a government-owned gas board--and it has provided gloomy, energy-short Britons with a diverting tempest in a bathtub.

The ad (see cut) moved the London tabloid, the Sun, to run a photo of a buxom model and her husband baring almost all in watery togetherness. It also inspired a cartoon portraying Prime Minister Edward Heath in a bath telling his butler: "Save gas or not, Perkins, I will not share a bath with Mick McGahey" (Communist official of the mineworkers union). The gas board itself was somewhat startled and not a little amused by the furor raised by the ad. "We never thought of the idea as kinky," said a board spokesman. Not everyone was so lighthearted. Conservative M.P. John Stokes called the ad "deplorably vulgar." Grumped another Conservative, Joseph Kinsey: "It is debasing the standards of the gas board to suggest we should share our baths." Other Britons were taken with the idea, but still found Ap practical arguments to buttress the two Tories' starchy objections. Vacationing at a hotel in Somerset, one couple forgot to turn off the taps with all their rub-a-dub-dubbing, and the water seeped into the bar. The next morning they hurriedly checked out after the other guests greeted them with the Eton Boating Song.

What if your partner really needs a bath? The wife of a coal-truck driver said that bathing with her husband was carrying patriotism too far. If she did, she said, she would step out of the tub with a black ring around each leg.

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