FREAKY PROPOGANDA!!!

[Beetwasher]

New DC Metro Poster, side by side w/ Communist and Nazi propoganda:

[Theres-a]

1. Yikes

:scared:

[ElectroPrincess]

31. Oh man, I'm gonna be looking for that and placing several complaints

to D.C. Metro. I haven't seen it yet but will ask my buds.

[tk2kewl]

2. that is freaky

:scared:

[Sparkly]

3. Oh my Gawd!!

Was this put out by the transit authority? That's truly freaky.

[atommom]

4. Hmm. Reminds me of some of the oldamericancentury

propaganda posters ... but they seem to have no sense of irony about this one. What are they asking people to report?

[AllegroRondo]

5. That looks remarkably like Nazi work from the 30's

[Redstone]

8. Damn, it does. Even moreso than it looks

like Soviet stuff.

The fuck are these people thinking?

Or...has anyone thought this could be the work of a "subversive" artist at the agency, pulling a number on them to make them look bad, and getting away with it because the higher-ups who approved the design are doofuses?

It's not impossible that it's an artist with a sense of humor...

Redstone

[Beetwasher]

17. That's Possible

Some artist is laughing his/her ass off.

[Redstone]

38. Oh, yeah. It does happen. I have a Velveeta cookbook

put out by Kraft, and it's SO obvious that the people who did the design and layout were goofing on Kraft; there are snide comments throughout the book, and they even titled it "Recipes for People Who Eat Food."

It's utterly hilarious.

Redstone

[glitch]

39. It is blatant. But too blatant? Remember the original Total Information

icon. These people are not original. Or subtle.
If it's from an artist it's brilliant, because we just don't know for sure.

[Beetwasher]

9. Nazi Example:

[Theres-a]

33. Spooky

[beam me up scottie]

6. What year is this?

I think I may have woken up too soon...

[Kathy in Cambridge]

26. 1938

go back to sleep-we'll wake you when it's over.

[brooklynite]

7. Nice, multicultural ridership shown there...

...considering DC has one of the highest proportions of minority residents in a major city.

[neweurope]

14. Wrong... See, this is mainly against "Arab looking" people

I think (and any other minority...). They only NEED to appeal to white repubs.

------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[whistle]

10. Well, what do you expect from republicans...creativity? Come-on

...these are the same people who paint-brushed the image of one of their rePuke stars over a backdrop of real Dean supporters lifted right from a Howard Dean campaign rally. It's just a way to appeal to the American proletariat socialist bureaucrats who live and work in Washington DC. At least they did not superimpose the faces of shrub and Dick Cheney on the red flag in their poster. That will come after the 2006 non-election.

[neweurope]

11. Jesus. They actually have these posters? I can hardly believe it.

Demanding that people denounce others? Not only the graphic style is right from the Goebbels department!

--------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Stephanie]

12. We have them in NY too - not in that style

Our subways have posters that say "If you see something, say something." Which I guess I don't really mind, considering what we've been through.

[Beetwasher]

16. Yeah, The NYC Ones Aren't Bad

The style of these DC one's though...Maybe Redstone is right and an artist is pulling one over...

[neweurope]

19. Yes, the good Germans didn't mind either after they'd been told

what they had been through... They said something when they thought they saw something. And a lot of perfectly innocent people ended up in jail or concentration camp.

-------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Stephanie]

21. The NY subway posters are WRT to reporting if you see an abandoned

bag or package, stuff like that. They are quite specific. A subway bomb is a real possibility, as Europe has learned. Don't get hysterical.

[fob]

37. The DC one has that at the top it says;

"or packages to the nearest conductor"

Can anybody post what the beginning of that paragraph says?

Is it along the lines of "Report suspicious people"? Either way the message is similar to the NYC one it's just been Nazi'd up.

I agree, scary.

[Stephanie]

24. here - calm down

http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/mta/news/newsroom/seesomething.htm

[Maru Kitteh]

28. Nobody has to TELL NYC what they've been through though

and therein lay the difference. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with asking citizens to be aware of their surroundings and report suspicious activity or even say...... people who might be carrying chainsaws stained with blood to the proper authorities.

It is wrong if ethnic discrimination is encouraged. Other than that it's a good idea for all of us to be aware of what happens around us. Sooner or later another attack of some kind will occur here. Wouldn't it be nice if ordinary people just keeping their eyes open were able to stop it in progress BEFORE thousands of others died this time?

The problem does not lie in civilian awareness, the potential problem lies in inappropriate response by police and state authority.

[Sequoia]

44. They were paid Five Marks for informing.

[neweurope]

51. Yes - no small sum then.

--------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Roland99]

13. They just don't even care what it looks like anymore, do they?

[dave123williams]

15. It's homage; duh. Do a google search on "Rodchenko" "Construtivism"

...and 'socially usefull art' ...and you'll begin to get the origins of this kind of thing...

[nashville_brook]

42. below someone posted that it's guerrilla art

(hmmm... insurgent art? terrorist art?)

anyway...

funny times we live in where we can actually imagine such a thing "passing." see my post below about "graphic designer... Zeitgeist." it caught me too and i took enough art history to declare a minor. i mean, yeah sure, it's homage to Futurism/Constructivism... but i could easily see pitching this to a client and having them bite, given that the project outline was "a hip public service announcement." we designers prey on clients with no sense of history...

moohoohahaha...

[Cats Against Frist]

46. Yeah, I was going to chime in with the constructivist/suprematist thing

and someone mentioned, above, that it could be some sort of artistic parody. It's still chilling, nonetheless.

[Hobarticus]

18. In the bottom poster, is that third Nazi from the front John Bolton?

I can spot that foam-flecked Wilfred Brimley 'stache a mile away...

[whistle]

20. Someone posted a blow-up of the poster which I guess the ....

...moderators removed as a dupe. But I was posting this comment which failed to take because the thread was removed:

<snip>
At first I thought the red banner in the background.....was a flag. The hand clutching the pole, looks like it supports the flag. But in this enlargement, it is apparent that the pole is a commuter train grab pole for standing commuters and the red banner that appears in the background is in fact a person dressed in a robe of some sort. I can make out what appear as breasts under the robe, so the person must be female and at the top it appears to be a neckline ending just under the chin, so the head is not visible. So, with some subliminal imagination I could very easily conclude that this is a figure of an Islamic female dressed in their traditional public attire, what is it called, burka???(sp?)

Anyway to post the enlarged version so others may comment on the details? Thanks.

Thanks for the blow-up.

[leftofthedial]

22. Welkommen zu Murka.

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. It's a fake...or rather, guerilla artwork

The posters are indeed posted in the DC Metro system, but they are not associated with any official agency. This is the work of a very clever guerilla artist.

[UncleSepp]

25. Brilliant!

Dang, I wish I'd thought of that :-D

[LibDemAlways]

29. It is inspired, and I

assume many riders "get" it, but there are probably just as many who wouldn't give it a second thought and just assume it comes from an official agency. That is what I find frightening.

[marions ghost]

36. agreed

this is too ambiguous -- if it is guerilla art (which I think it HAS to be, but these days anything is possible...so I'm not 100% sure. I never thought we'd see the "Dept of Homeland Security" either).

Only those familiar with early 20th c. Soviet and Nazi propaganda art would figure out the message behind this (thanks to the OP for posting those examples, so anyone reading this can see the connection). That would NOT be a majority of riders, I think. So its purpose as guerilla art may be only for a few in the know. It's probably only scary to we who instantly go "tilt" -- other riders would be oblivious.

[atommom]

30. Great work!

[Beetwasher]

32. Really? How do You Know This?

:shrug:

[beam me up scottie]

34. VERY effective!

Kudos to the artist.
If I lived there, I'd definitely grab one, they'll be in demand soon.

[marions ghost]

49. definitely collectible

I would say;)

[ElectroPrincess]

35. If these folks are trying to "do good" they best advertise it as such ...

Remember that during the 1970s many Right Wingers though that Carroll O'Connor (the man who played "Archie Bunker") was a conservative in person, i.e., believed everything he said in his role on "All in the Family?"

I can still visualize the "hurt look" on a number of my RW relatives faces when I was able to prove to them that C. O'Connor was a dyed in the wool, one each, bleeding heart liberal. Too bizarre, like that of a whipped puppy. :P

Nuance is lost on RW Republicans.

[nashville_brook]

43. that's what makes it subversive

if it is guerrilla art, it's prolly obvious in context.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

41. And you know this why?

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

27. Kind of weird how their eyes look closed when they are supposed to be

watching. And the blood red background looks like the poster is trying to scare people.

Also, that style of person is different from what American public art looked like in the thirties. To me, it definitely looks more like the Soviet or Nazi style of Supermen, rather than the American style of the brawny workingman or the cheerful housewife types they used in this country.

So if it's homage, as the one poster says above, it is not following the more traditional American style, which was more democratic.

[nashville_brook]

40. there's a graphic desiger with a sense of the Zeitgeist!

imho as a designer... if it were me doing this project... i would have proposed something like that just to jam their culture. they prolly pitched it "just to see." happens all the time... client always picks the most offensive and a seasoned designer knows to let them do it. :)

[grace0418]

47. That's absolutely what I thought. You'd be very surprised how

clueless some clients are. I see that kind of thing all the time and chuckle. It's like when "Earring Magic Ken" (aka Cock-Ring Ken) came out in the nineties, causing a huge uproar because he was clearly dressed as a stereotypical gay man with a shiny vest, mesh t-shirt, frosted hairdo, earring and what looks suspiciously like a cock-ring on a necklace around his neck. Mattel denied everything (http://grimoire-samsara.blogspot.com/2004/08/ken-comes-out-whats-that-queer-thing.html) but I just laughed, knowing that some clever toy designer at Mattel was totally having the last laugh.

[The Magistrate]

45. Never saw Such Heroic Strap-hangers In My Life, Sir

When next boarding a bus, it will bring a thrill of national dedication to my tired old heart to be in the company of such giants....

[lonestarnot]

48. The watchers...encouraged by our government, bushilter is

not going to give up his dream to rule the world!

[ComerPerro]

50. KUnited, a political party at the University of Kansas

(mostly a fratboy political party, they are very successful) ran with the following campaign slogan:

One Campus
One Community
One KU


Scared the hell outta me.

Ein volk
Ein reich
Ein Fuhrer