Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Feelin' groovy


OK first of all who plugs their ears with their pinky fingers!?!?!?!!? I'm sorry but it needed to be said.

The metro poster for July warns, "Please be careful of noise leaking from your headphones in the train". In English would we spell this out so explicitly if there was an accompanying picture? Or would it say something like "please be conscientious of others" or "please refrain from listening to loud music"? I'm not sure how 音漏れ (oto more) would translate into English, but I think if the Tokyo Metro is going to say something that sounds as awkward as the above they might as well translate the phrase directly and warn us, "Please be careful of sound leakage on the train". At least it would be awkward English with style. In terms of the actual message, I would have liked to see two pictures, one illustrating sound leakage with a guy wearing iPod headphones and one illustrating sound containment with a guy wearing big headphones like the ones in the actual poster.

Of course, the creepy man is featured again but this time we get a body shot! And now I am convinced he is the Man. A tool. I'm going to call him "the Tool" from now on. Is he wearing TWO watches?! I can understand the kid is wearing a sweatband but what is the deal with the Tool? Anyway you almost have to feel sorry for the guy. In the first few posters he is portrayed as a creepy perv and now he is sporting a tie clip, short sleeves because he is practising a cool biz summer, pince-nez glasses and a comb-over that doesn't quite reach. Not only that but it looks like he might even be suffering from metabolic syndrome, or metabo to those in the know. Maybe it will be the instability from sound leakage that will eventually drive him to molesting female passengers in the months to come.

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