Fight Club is one of those films I saw some time after its cinema release because the producers allowed it to be totally misrepresented in the release publicity. I saw the ads, consumed the manufactured media ruckus about its 'graphic violence', decided ‘that sounds like rubbish’ and didn’t go to see it.
Whereas, in truth, if I had known what the film was really all about I would have walked over a field of kittens to see it.
Anyway, one of the gags in Fight Club is the idea of teams of disaffacted people committing various acts of subversive, corporate sabotage. I was particularly tickled by the thought of replacing airliner safety instructions with alternate cards that portrayed people on fire and screaming in panic, as would presumably really be the case in the event of a serious incident.
And after finally seeing Fight Club for the first time I remember thinking how cool it would be if people really did get together and start to subvert the Machine in those kind of ways.
So, when a friend pointed this sign out to me outside the Elephant and Castle Underground Station I was well-pleased
It goes without saying that this isn’t a genuine Evening Standard headline
Anyone familiar with the Evening Standard will understand. The Standard is an evening paper and, particularly in the Internet Age, it tries desperately to lure people into buying it by using the most sensationalist, and often scary, headlines it can come up with...
I was even more pleased after I pasted the photo into Flickr and someone commented
I've an acquaintance in London who does subversive remixes of these Standard billboards and goes around inserting them from time to time...
There is some hope for Humanity after all
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edit: Thanks to Pete for pointing me towards an entire Flickr group filled with Evening Standard banners and, no, I hadn't seen it before. Pure Gold.
5 comments:
Love that remix. ;)
Assume you've seen this collection of the real thing?
http://flickr.com/photos/lmg/sets/345910/
I had the same Fight Club experience as you - assuming it was mindless violence from the reviews then buying the DVD to find one of the best films ever.
Anyway. I saw a poster at Bank tube station which said something like "Please do not give money to beggars - thieves will see where you keep your wallet"
I really wanted to replace the word "beggars" with "ticket inspectors" or something like that.
I was only prevented by:
1. Not having a suitable marker pen
2. The number of people around
3. Working for LU at the time
I still regret the missed opportunity.
Coincidentally, I was reflecting the other day on our local paper's heroic struggles to get eyecatching boards from the local news. A photo set of them would be a very post-ironic creation.
As for Fight Club. I've been about to watch it several times, but have always been prevented by fate. One day.
The Evening Standard and its wonderful headlines... :/
I remember being startled by my personal tutor's wise and frank words when I started as an undergrad at Kings: "Its a steaming pile of shit, only buy it for the entertainment supplement, not fit for toilet paper". What a fine piece of advice that turned out to be...
Pete Ashton is a thermometer of all that's relevant on the internet. The day that everyone realises this, he'll be doomed. And possibly a bit richer. But maybe neither.
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