A Little Sound & Disrupta - Escape The Lights

Did VW Just Score An Own Goal With Darth Vader?

Human Behaviour

A few weeks ago I pulled an all nighter in a Filipino Karaoke (don't ask) and I was dumbstruck at how effective the stickers on the stairs (no elevator) were at communicating exactly who was in the building. Like local advertising on steroids for me, as by the time I got to the top floor there was no way to forget the company on the second floor. This however is more fun and inclusive and for me works as VW territory.

Swap Meet

Over the weekend I went to a 'Swap Meet' thinking it would be like a car boot sale with some swapping although it was more about me swapping my cash for stuff. In any case most of it was a lot of the junk we accumulate without having any real purpose and yet each piece of junk has a whole manufacturing process behind it.

Depressing really, but I did score some amazing vintage magazines which I don't really have enough space to carry back to China ,although if anyone is interested I can buy up the rest next week and ship 'em somewhere, where they will be appreciated because I was the only person interested in them given that most of the people ambling around the car park were of Vietnamese or Mexican extraction. These printed products kind of reminded me of the Ephemera Society fair that I attended with Charlie some time back last year.

This first cover caught my eye as it's celebrating the 1960 Rome Olympics and what with all the Olympic fever in the air I thought it provided an interesting contrast. The happiness and spontaneity of the front cover is evident with the two smiling gymnasts from the U.S. team.

The next one is an Evening Standard (I've no idea what it's doing in California) from the 1972 Munich Olympics. These games were marred with tragedy and if I'm not mistaken were the occasion when the term Terrorist first came into the public consciousness.

This Time magazine surprised me for it's coverage of a British election which led me to think the owner (whose address is on the cover) might be an Anglophile or a British emigre.

I think this Life cover from 1963 the year of Kennedy's assassination is I think the most historic find. Inside were full details of the death including the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald only 90 minutes after the event. A classic example of 'case closed' so quickly and yet we now know there are so many questions outstanding. Most importantly Oswald's assertion that he was a patsy.

Lastly a bit of advertising as all the items I bought are chock full of ads that are so good. I particularly liked this one because I'm staying with a friend who was partly responsible for hiring of Crispin Porter while at VW and developed with CP&B a campaign which is strictly speaking so on brand all these years later from the above quintessential Bernbach days of DDB and Volkswagen. See below.

Fin de siècle

Cheesy and horrifying isn't it? 'Let it be cool' they tell us, just like the following brand spanking new ad from DDB which asks with a firm handshake and no hint of irony, 'When was the last time you smelt something real?'



So now I'm left with the question. Why do people flee from the cities to the coastline to get some clean air in the first place?