Actual British Tourism Ad Campaign Image
Controversy Over Eurostars Shock Skinhead Urinating Advert |Sky News|UK News
An advert depicting a tattooed skinhead urinating into a china teacup is being used to promote tourism to London.
The image is part of a new Eurostar campaign aimed solely at the Belgian market.
Posters have gone up on billboards in Antwerp, Brussels, Liege and Ghent to promote the new high-speed train connection to the English capital.
The company says the advert is great for British tourism.”Its fun, its supposed to show how cosmopolitan London is. Yes, I really think it says London is cosmopolitan,” insisted a spokeswoman for Eurostar.
What are they thinking?? And why are the Belgians the target of the campaign? Well here’s what I think. There is this famous bronze in Belgium called Manneken pis depicting a little boy peeing. He was symbolically peeing on some Army or something. These stories date back to the 12th century. The most famous of the peeing statues is in Brussels and is shown below.
So I guess the Brits think the Belgium are really into this public peeing thing to some sort of extreme and the skinhead peeing into a cup from long range would thus have an immediate appeal to those jokers from Belgium. Cripes. What an insult.
found by J.M. Rice
That guy should go get his kidneys checked.. Who pees that color?
#1 – I did after a failed attempt to remove a kidney stone.
If you could just go to London and pee in public, I would have to consider it as a tourist destination. It would definitely move up my list.
Well, I’m belgian and actually it’s quite fun !
It’s a cultural thing, y’know, irreverence and all that… figures.
Methinks it has something to do with public restrooms being called teahouses where you can get some anonymous gay sex.
Hmm… Maybe they should advertise that to the US.
As a Belgian and – pure coincidence – employed by an ad agency, I love the campaign. It’s intended to show how close to home London can be/feel (if you use the Eurostar HST). The reference to Manneken Pis makes perfect sense.
I should mention I do not work for the agency that created the campaign.
Hold it, I think this Advertisement company is actually lacking originality and chances are that they copied it from those counterfeit decals depicting Calvin (from Calvin & Hobbes) peeing on a car logo.
You see, Calvin would never be caught peeing in a car logo in an American comic strip. OTOH he was several times seen at the commands of an imaginary F15 leveling his school to the ground.
How’s that for a “cultural thing”?
It’s a Belgian ad, created by a Belgian agency, for Belgians.
Try reading the story you link to.
Here I thought it ment the train service is so fast you take piss in london and be back home before the commercials on tv are over…
didnt britan have a similar campaign just before world war two??
6. Angel, I think your on to something.
#1, #2: My dad woke up and did that one morning. Tests later determined that he had advanced bladder cancer.
As long as they bring their fabulous beer with them, I the more Belgians that come to the UK the better…. no does beer quite as good as the Belgians….
Be warned, do this for real in the UK and you can be done for indecent exposure, even if nobody saw your bits.
Andy: Unless you are pregnant, in which case you can ask a police officer for his hat and pee in there…..
Joao –
The creator of Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Waterson, never licensed use of his strip for any consumer products. So every time you see “Calvin” in a bumper sticker or t-shirt, it’s a counterfeit.