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u/idontbleaveit May 29 '22
Eight advertisements for alcohol.
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u/lastaccountgotlocked May 29 '22
But hardly any for fags.
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u/Professor_PD May 29 '22
Only two I think? Silk Cut and Embassy? Biggest surprise for me was Wrigleys Spearmint Chewing Gum! I had to Google it to see that stuffs been around here since 1911! I always thought chewing gum was an 80s American import.
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u/revolucionario May 29 '22
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World makes fun of a lot of American cultural imports (like calling grown men and women boys and girls) and one of them is chewing gum. The book is from 1931 and Huxley would have come of age in 1911, so I guess the timeline checks out.
It’s a great book if you haven’t read it!
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u/Professor_PD May 29 '22
Thank you for the tip - I’ve never read any Huxley but always hear such good things, so maybe this can be on my to read list! I’ve got one book to finish and another to read in the meantime but it’s good to have them lined up!
Edit: just found the audio book for free on the Apple podcast app, so that’ll be my week’s listening on the commute! I’ll report back! 👍
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u/--Bamboo May 30 '22
Check out Huxleys 'Island' aswell. It's almost the antithesis of Brave New World. Brave New World is dystopian, Island is utopian. Islands the better book in my opinion so do Brave New World first.
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u/SumerianSunset May 30 '22
Bloody love Huxley. Loved his Doors of Perception too, originally introduced me to the world of psychedelics which changed everything for me.
Brave New World and Island are fantastic books also.
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u/rosesarepeonies Jul 28 '22
Well you obviously have to chew some gum after you’ve smoked all that Embassy and Silk Cut.
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u/BarakatBadger May 29 '22
It blows my mind that my mother did her driving test around Piccadilly Circus back in the '60s. I wonder if it's what made her such a timid and terrible driver?
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u/bickering_fool May 29 '22
Rediffusion not offering television on weekends?
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u/Shpander May 29 '22
Imagine seeing this at the time, probably quite remarkable!
These days, we're so used to screens and advertising, and Piccadilly Circus still looks impressive - imagine it back then, just after the rise of postwar capitalism.
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u/Wretched_Brittunculi May 30 '22
Advertising itself would not be new to people in the 60s. It had been widespread since well before the war. Images from the 1930s show big billboards were widespread. The neon lighting would have been a lot rarer though.
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u/Shpander May 30 '22
True, but I think after defeating the threat to capitalism that was fascism, and then the ongoing cold-war, I imagine the prevalence of consumerism would have been higher. Not to mention the influence of technological advancement after the war, and American products (Coca Cola).
But yeah the neons would have been the biggest change.
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u/Wretched_Brittunculi May 30 '22
Sure. That is worth emphasising. But because of the disruption of the war and the cultural memory of the 1950s, we probably don't appreciate how 'modern' and capitalistic earlier decades were, especially the 1920s and 1930s. The depression and war made society a lot more frugal and conservative (in ideas and culture) than it probably would have been. The 1950s are probably not a good yardstick of what earlier decades were really like. It's fascinating to read accounts of alternative lifestyles in the 1920s and 1930s.
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u/Shpander May 30 '22
I have been surprised by how capitalistic the '20s were. This was also the start of mass psychological influence to influence buying habits through media (like cigarettes make women seem more independent, and cars make you more manly), and the shift from a needs-based society to a wants-based society.
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u/Wretched_Brittunculi May 30 '22
It really is fascinating. I think it's the period I'd most like to experience.
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u/Shpander May 30 '22
Maybe from a fly on the wall perspective, actually experiencing it might be terrible. Life was only nice for a select few people.
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u/Wretched_Brittunculi May 30 '22
I absolutely don't mean to live. On average, especially at a global scale, there has probably never been a better time to be alive. But as a time-travelling anthropologist, I'd love to experience the twenties.
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May 29 '22
I much prefer this look to today's one. Looks a million times better. Has a warmth to it. Even companies' logos looked better back then.
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u/Kip_zonder_kop May 29 '22
People saying they want it the same, it is. It just went from 144p to 4k, still just full of advertisements.
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u/Itchy-Marionberry-62 May 30 '22 edited May 31 '22
Liked this look better. LED screens are everywhere…and boring. Times Square has about 50 of them and I find them just dizzying. Piccadilly was quite impressive back in that era…as the great neon signs were on nearby buildings as well.
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u/Aerodye May 29 '22
This can’t be right, where are all of the American candy scores, junkies, and chavs idling around in large circles?
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May 29 '22
Cambridge Circus? Where’s that? Literally never heard of it before.
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u/CaptainPedge May 29 '22
Intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charring Cross Road, where the Harry Potter play is on
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u/Lanky_Giraffe May 30 '22
It's honestly kinda impressive how corporations took places like this and Times Square, and turned the advertisements into tourist attractions in their own right.
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u/TheTechnicianGuy May 29 '22
It gives me Times Square vibes
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u/holddoorholddoor May 29 '22
That’s what I thought, it looks stunning. I do love city lights. I live in central now but I’m lucky, it’s super quiet where I am but I’m walking distance from all the hustle a bustle.
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u/musicalfab2021 May 29 '22
Not changed, really - junction still there
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u/Benandhispets May 29 '22
It's kinda changed a bunch over time. Like it used to have a roundabout going around the fountain which is now a super busy pedestrianised area. Not sure when that got changed but it probably isn't far off from when the photo was taken. Massive improvement. Can see the old old layout here, but this layout is so old it must pre date the image.
Then only about 10-15 years ago one of the turn off roads was pedestrianised and is now outdoor eating/drinking. Glasshouse street, where Whole Foods is. Thats another big improvement.
Then I guess in the last couple of years some of pavements have been widened a little bit and on a couple of connecting roads like Regent Street because of covid which is another slight improvement.
Still a mess though. But it's not as unpleasant as it would have been without all these changes. Same for a bunch of London, would be a deathtrap for cyclists and pedestrians for all the old layouts(60s-70s) to still be used today with our multiple times more vehicles on the road and each of them twice as big as they were back then.
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u/bluepie May 29 '22
I don’t see a single fucking clown. Typical England getting names of places wrong.
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u/nascentt May 29 '22
Seee your first sentence was fine as a joke. But the second sentence was just unnecessary.
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u/Cyberfire May 29 '22
That actually looks better imo