Thursday, April 26, 2007

Human Camouflage

It was a big surprise to me that my wife suddenly disappeared before a take-away fast food shop at Pier 39, San Francisco on April 22nd, 2006. This fast food shop was so designed that it looked as if it was inside an old Volkswagon. There were windows opened for showing the food, “Order here” and “Pick-up”.

The three colours on my wife’s clothes matched exactly with those of the shop or I should say the Volkswagon:

Wife <=============================>Fast food shop

White collar of jacket<======> Colour of top half of the Volkswagon

Orange-red pull-over<=====> Colour of lower half of the Volkswagon

Light blue jacket <======> Colour of the strips on the body of van

It seems that my wife had the power of Camouflage at that moment!

Well, this fast food shop “ Wipe out to go” sold Snacks, Seafood, Burgers, Pizzas, Tacos and Drinks. It publicized three things here, “ EAT DRINK SURF”. I did not quite understand why it urged people to surf. I thought the waters near the piers were not suitable for surfing because they were full of activities of different kinds of boats and ships. Perhaps Felix can tell me the answer!

The bottom photo shows the same effect. It is an advertisement at one of its stations on Ma On Shan Rail. The family of four is sitting at a sofa. Their clothes, the reading lamp cover, the wall, the floor and sofa match altogether.

I have a few questions to ask you here:

1. Have you taken a family photo like this kind?

2. Does the father in your family wear glasses?

3. Do the father and son in your family often wear bow ties?

4. Do the mother and daughter in your family wear long hair? Do they look alike?

5. What do those “percentages” in the advertisement to do with?

6. What idea, in your opinion, does this advertisement convey?



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The way your wife likes to laugh, she must have laughed really heartily after she found out what she had done obliviously.

It is not uncommon for a family to take photos while sitting together, but as you have mentioned, the strange costumes with the camouflage effect to the surrounding furnitures
produces an intrigue phenonmenon. Of course the father wearing an old fashioned glasses and the bow ties to the father and son also contribute to the strangeness. It looks unreal to reality--may be this is what the advertiser wants to achieve. Anyway the wordings seem to suggest the advertisement is for some sort of real estate.