They Want Your Pod!
Pod panic on the streets of Brixton
(13th March, 2007. Report by editor. © urban75)

Although some may already feel that walking around Brixton is akin to taking a stroll around another planet, we began to think we might have been transported to a parallel universe when we spotted bright garish yellow billboards appearing all around town exclaiming, "THEY WANT YOUR POD!"

The signs were appearing everywhere - on lamp posts, railings and street furniture - warning the denizens of Brixton that large dark silhouetted shapes were hell bent on taking their "POD."



Fearing a Day of the Triffids-like invasion of Coldharbour Lane, we took a closer look and saw that the boards were illustrated by a large black blob of a humanoid facing up to a thinner humanoid sporting the trademark white cable of the Apple iPod player.

In smaller text underneath the screaming headline, "BEWARE," the sign goes on, "Street robbers are targeting persons using mp3 music players in this street!"





It turns out that far from warning visitors of an impending alien pod-snatching mission, the signs are part of the 'Safer Lambeth' initiative by the Metropolitan Police.

Although the sign doesn't actually tell you what to do to prevent being 'jacked' (© Richard Madeley ), we guess the iPod imagery is a way of advising music listeners ecstatically flailing their limbs a la iPod advert that they should show a little more discretion on the mean streets of Brixton.





Of course, being Brixton, it was only a matter of hours before the sign was joyfully subverted, with stick-on labels in the same colour and typeface altering the message to read:

"THEY WANT YOUR POD - BECAUSE YOU TOOK THEIR SOUL"


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