December 9th – Spotted as I stopped in Stonnall for a couple of items on the way home.
I’m glad they qualified that – can’t have people thinking the real Michael Jackson was coming to Stonnall. What with him being deceased, and everything.
Seriously though, if you can carry off a tribute to the odder fifth of the Jackson 5, I salute you. That must be a tough gig. Literally.
August 25th – Passing through Pleck, I noted the ‘legal name fraud’ posters are appearing again.
To me, it’s inconceivable that someone could have the wealth to pay for these, yet the stupidity and lack of insight to believe the moronic, pseudo-legal claptrap they espouse.
If you’re puzzled, read this article, and note that it’s all related to the Freemen of the Land muppets…
Beware: googling any of this opens a whole world of rambling rubbish.
August 10th – Popping up to Aldridge on my way to work, I noticed this character pointing the way to a local drainage supplies company, Venture Plastics, on Brickyard Road.
In what seems to be a nod to Futurama’s Bender, it can’t have been an easy thing to do so well. Brilliant.
Wonder if it has a name? My compliments to the creator. A masterpiece, and brilliant advertising.
June 20th – One for the occasional series on the silliness of advertising billboards.
I find myself paying more attention to roadside ads when cycling, as they take me longer to pass than if driving and some, after a few weeks, really begin to irritate. This one is a particularly fine example of the Photoshop failure art form – this example is on the Walsall Road in Darlaston.
This is an advert for the BMW Mini Cooper. Nothing wrong with that (unless you can remember how much character the original had…) but this ad exists in several forms for different length billboards. Notice the bike in the background? In all but it’s longest format, the lamppost is slightly behind the car, and you can only see the rear of the bike, a steel 1980s racing bike.
In common with most 80s bikes, it has a self-added prop stand, mounted off the rear wheel nut, and an aluminium circular spoke guard between the gears and wheel on the back axle.
Quite what’s passing through the wheel at ground level I have no idea.
Now look at the front wheel. It has the ghost of the propstand mount, rotated around 105 degrees. The aluminium spoke guard is on the front too. The end of the front fork is straight, with no dropout.
The forks and position of the wheel suggest the top tube (between handlebar quill and saddle) is unfeasibly huge.
The front of the bike is not real. It’s been created in photoshop, by someone unfamiliar with bikes, purely to fill space when the ad was stretched.
What a load of old tut. This has been rubbing me up the wrong way for a week now.
October 13th – Hurriedly snapped in evening traffic at Rushall. Michael Jackson didn’t die, clearly – he’s now keeping his head down. starring in recruitment adds for Travel West Midlands.
October 22nd – In the offices of Smarm, Smarm, Bignob and Braces, advertising agency for SSE Power:
‘Nigel, it’s a great advert for energy. But it’s lacking a certain gravitas. What it needs is a completely irrelevant, wistful, ennui-laden orang-utan, gazing meaningfully into the distance.’
‘I’ll get right onto it, Gideon’
As is the photoshopped buildings and van weren’t shitty enough. What would the librarian of the Unseen University make of it all?
‘Ook!’ probably.
Both spotted in Darlaston.
February 21st – Running late for my connection, I piled it through the city centre in the morning, and saw two of these curious advertising trikes parked up advertising Thinktank. They look hand built, but not terribly well cared for. Primitive disc brakes on the back, and small wheels with an absurdly low gear ratio. Must make for an… interesting riding experience.
Certainly wouldn’t fancy piloting one in a crosswind.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 