I like to think that you can pretty much find humor in anything, case in point an ATM machine we used in Brussels over the summer.

For some reason whoever designed the graphic instructions for the CBC bank in Belgium really took it upon themselves to come up with something amusing. If only all ATM machines were like this, it would make dwindling your bank account so much easier...I actually had to remove the sound since we were laughing like a bunch of idiots watching the screen...

Permalink    Labels: Belgium, Confusion, Whackiness

Peter Tomarken must have been losing it a bit in this no whammies spin battle from 1984. (Apparently it is referred to as The Famous Spin Battle. Who knew?) This is about as good as it got for 80's game show television...even without the Big Bucks.

Permalink    Labels: Whackiness, Lost Classics

Hung on a wall at Liljeholmen subway station, Stockholm:



Translation:

Dentist If you want to visit a very skilled dentist that also has humane prices, go to Västertorp Centrum across from the subway station.

Do you want a dentist that is desperate enough to hang hand made signs up with tape on subway station walls? I thought this country had some form of socialized health care. How can dentists be reduced to this...type of advertising.

Permalink    Labels: Whackiness, Stockholm, Advertisements

About a week ago I was walking in the area adjacent to the central station here in Stockholm. At this time of year, the cold and wet season, plattan (as it is known) has a sort of Christmas market going on. The sweatshirt to the right was one of the fine items on sale.

It always strikes me as a bit disturbing that there are people who actually make clothes that involve blatant profanity (and provacation.) Granted you won't find something like this at The Gap, but you will find it scattered throughout the countries of the world that don't have English as a first language. (Japan is a great example...) Even more disturbing is the fact that people buy them...and then somehow find a suitable occasion to wear them.

Now, back to the sweatshirt on the right, there are so many things that are wrong with those six words put together that my head spins. First off, Swedes have an affinity with English swear words. They dot main stream media in everything from book and film titles to advertising and even actual journalism. They do not have the taboo that exists elsewhere with their public use and thereby lack the weight they would normally have. (They have even been Swedified and incorporated into the language. Example: when something has gone completely wrong it is uppfuckad. No translation needed there...) However, this particular phrase goes beyond that. If it had just said "Fuck You" then I wouldn't have bothered to take a picture. But no, it say's "Fuck You I Drive A Volvo." How does one decipher that message?

I can only assume that there are some tourists picking these up because they are so bizarre. It would be like going to France and buying a t-shirt that says "Fuck You I Eat Croissants!" I mean, there can't honestly be someone on this planet that drives a Volvo that is so content, satisfied and down right ready to defend his choice of vehicle (unmitigated) that he would ever actually say that - let alone wear it. That's like getting in a fight at a bar over what conditioner you use or what type of sunblock offers the best protection. In addition to that, this is Sweden, where 1 in every 4 cars are made by Volvo. (Roughly 1 million.) So, feeling outnumbered and misunderstood isn't really an issue. No, it's just not possible. At no point, ever, has anyone ever uttered that phrase or probably even thought it.

In the end, I will have to write it down as irony. If it had been SAAB things would have been different...

Permalink    Labels: Stockholm, Whackiness

Occasionally (read at least once a month) I see advertisements on the subway here in Stockholm that completely throw me off. It's as if for a moment I am living in a parallel dimension where things I know shouldn't actually be allowed, happen anyways.

Enter this ad for the Rubik's Cube - note it is the original - that appeared some time back as part of a campaign for Teknik Magasinet. I was hoping that additional items, such as the Lite Brite or Etcha-a-Sketch, would also be considered "Orginal gangsta shit!" but alas the Cube was the only product to receive the honors.

Who it was in the chain of reviewers and designers that thought that this was:

A good idea

Good marketing

deserves some credit. If I hadn't actually seen this numerous times with my own two eyes I would have thought the image was Photoshopped. But, trust me here folks, this is just too bizarre....

* Yes, it's true, an original Rubik's Cube does cost like $30 in Sweden.

Permalink    Labels: Stockholm, Advertisements, Whackiness