Is this real? Is this recent? Is this some kind of a Boris (he of the bouffant hair) scheme? And is the saucery object above "beneath the" meant to represent a U.F.O.?
Of course, the poster deliberately recalls 1930s advertisements like this one:
Via.
Which in turn are echoed by other posters from the period, even though they have nothing to do with public transport in the narrow sense:
Via.
UPDATE: For more spooky Big Brother stuff, check out this post by Francis Sedgemore.
3 comments:
The poster is entirely real, and Ken-era rather than Boris-era: circa 2002, if I remember right, and one of a series of designs on a 1950s science fiction theme celebrating advances in the bus service ("HERE IN GREATER NUMBERS" is the other slogan I can remember). No trace of it at the London Transport Museum online poster display, but they had full-size originals in the shop last time I went. Almost bought one.
Ye gods, that's a really unsettling advert. It sends a completely different Orwellian message to me, rather than the one of a cozy security blanket that is presumably intended...
Peter,
Thanks for the info. I must check out the Transport Museum next time I'm in London. Full size, too? I don't have enough nightmares by half and this poster in the bedroom might just do the trick.
So Ken thought this was a good idea? No awareness of a certain ... ambiguity?
Geoff,
Can you imagine anyone finding this poster reassuring? I don't know what got into that ad-person's head!
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