25 March 2010 Bus Stop Beer Advert

Sam and I wait for the bus after an afternoon at the Hove Home Ed playgroup. She’s leaning against an ad for Bombadier beer–an English brew. These ads are everywhere and they feature a hodgepodge of English icons like Queen Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, and Winston Churchill, all mashed up with other symbols and in poses that that very nearly make the familiar faces unfamiliar. The other day I was staring at the Sherlock Holmes ad and trying to figure out why it was creepy and then realized it was because Holmes was smiling while clinging to the side of a gigantic bottle of ale with a cricket bat in his hand.

I have to confess I find this kind of icon salad oddly mesmerizing.

Today’s bus stop ad included Henry VIII and comedian Eric Morecambe standing on top of a Cornish pasty (I think). But what are the garden gnomes doing there? And why does Morecambe have jingle bells strapped to his legs? Is Henry VIII supposed to be dressed as a rugby player, and what is he holding in his right hand that looks like a cork tied to the end of string?

We almost missed our bus because I was pondering these questions (and taking the picture).

As a brand new resident of the UK, I feel a powerful urge to decode each and every symbol on these bus stop beer adverts. I suppose this will be my geeky way of making England familiar, making England home.

Or we can think of it as my personal DaVinci Code quest. If I stop blogging for a while, you’ll know I’m on to something!