Monday, March 03, 2008

Separated At Birth

#2 in a woefully occasional series.


Exhibit A: Financial Times advert, as seen today on Charles Frith's blog.



Exhibit B: Caprica City, capital city of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.


Either someone at the FT's ad agency is a Battlestar Galactica fan, or the world's financial centres are all shortly about to be nuked by Cylons. I'm not sure which scenario I prefer.


UPDATE: Although come to think of it, since Battlestar Galactica is an allegory of a post-9/11 world in which culturally imperialist Westerners *are* (possibly) the Cylons, this may be more subversive than it first appears.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Jesus. As soon as I saw that pic, the theme music from Battlestar downloaded itself from the storage department of my brain and is now playing over and over again inside my head, accompanied by images of Gaius Baltar looking tearful and cowed. Make it fracking stop!

Annie said...

Ooh, I love that advert. I love ideas that can be summed up in one illustration. At first I just thought it was a really crazy city but then I read the tagline.

Anyway, have never seen Battlestar thingy so can't comment on that.

patroclus said...

Albert: I can't make it stop, it's happening to me too now! And ah, Gaius Baltar, the most flawed and complex character in television history. Or is he?

Annie R: I think the comparison with Caprica City is deliberate, and the ad person is subtly implying that the entire world economy is heading for IMMINENT ANNIHILATION. Woo!

Jayne said...

oooh, the final season's due to start airing in the US next month. Sad but good they're tying it all up neatly and not dragging it out forever (a la Lost - which I have to admit I'm still watching just to see Sayid in a wifebeater, yum).

Dave said...

Now I'm going to have to spend every afternoon (it's OK, I'm signed off work sick for another three months) watching the DVDs again, trying to spot the allegories.

patroclus said...

Jayne: I'm pleased to say I never got into Lost, although with its lack of an 'ending' perhaps it's just an allegory for life, blah blah GCSE lit crit.

Dave: That sounds like an excellent plan. I recommend you don't approach it as I did, which was to watch series 2, then half of series 1, then the mini-series, then the other half of series 1, then series 3.

Anyway, series 1 = 9/11 (wronged people from far away come back to wreak unexpected revenge on dominant civilisation), series 2 = the occupation of Iraq (in which the humans are the Iraqis and the Cylons the occupying coalition), and series 3, well, I got a bit lost with series 3, to be frank. Really looking forward to series 4, though.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad I wasn't the only one slightly mystified by season 3. Or at least, the last episode. Wtf? At least now I know why that ad looked faintly familiar. It is a subversive comment without doubt.
Anyone know if now the writers strike is off they are going to make all of the last series of Battlestar?

Anonymous said...

Oh, and Gaius? Could just be your average self-centred human who was in the wrong place.

patroclus said...

Bella: I think it was the episode with All Along The Watchtower that made me start to think it had all gone a bit iffy. And Starbuck's special mystical destiny and all that, it just seemed to be going a bit too much like Lost, so I'm glad it's all actually going to be drawn to a (hopefully pleasing) close in the next series.

Charles Edward Frith said...

Well spotted on this. I've been meaning to comment but alas each time I've been on a blocked ISP line. China being a bit funny about blogspot.

Anyway I love it when ad agencies get paid for homage. Clearly this is too close to defend otherwise ;)