Joules knot

This reproduction vintage poster for Joules Ales is actually sited in Shropshire, but I took a photo anyway, for my collection of sightings of Stafford Knots (you can see the knot just above the word 'Stone').

The Joules Brewery was originally brewed in mid-Staffordshire, but is now based in Market Drayton in Shropshire.

England fans - realistic

Yes... it's World Cup time - but England fans don't expect a great deal from their team.

This very funny sales poster in Kinver High Street neatly sums up the nicely self-deprecating attitude that fans have towards the team's chance of success...

It's not shopping; it's charity

This clever poster, created for Red Cross charity-shops, such as this one in Kidsgrove, summons up brilliantly how a lot of us rationalise our trips to thrift-shops.

Of course I really buy in charity shops because what they sell are bargains, but... it's also all for a good cause!!

Danger - quicksand!

Quicksand is not a common threat to walkers in Staffordshire - though it does crop up.

This rather dramatic poster can be seen at the eastern edge of the National Memorial Arboretum.  The whole NMA site can be treated as a long and interesting walk, though its actual purpose is much more serious of course.

Marstons beer - and the Queen...

Sixty Glorious Years??? What anniversary could this poster that I saw in the Raddle Inn (on top of Hollington) be referring to?
Surely that of the coronation of our long-lived monarch?

Er, no.  In a slightly cheeky manner ("sixty glorious years" indeed!!!), the beer company Marstons, which is based in east Staffordshire, is reminding us that one of its finest pale ales, Pedigree, was launched in 1952. Just as the Queen was.

Good old Pedigree. Happy birthday.

Go compare... away

The 'Go Compare' TV ads, which feature an operatic tenor, are possibly the most irritating and over-repeated adverts in any of the media. So I have some sympathy with the graffiti-guerilla who defaced this billboard poster (note the crook around the tenor's neck about to haul him off-screen...).

In fact, I burst out laughing when I saw it in Shelton.
One shouldn't laugh really, as this defacement is hardly a legal act - but ... it is SUCH an irritating ad!

STOP PRESS: Thanks to Andrew Woodvine (see his comment below), who alerted me to the fact that, er, I'd been had.  Yes, this 'graffiti' is all part of a clever advertising spoof by Go Compare themselves. Well, it certainly fooled me!

Back England - by betting

This betting shop seems to say that the best way to be patriotic during these European nations football tournament is by having enough faith in the English team to place a bet on them.

Am I alone in finding that a rather distasteful exploitation of our desire to see England do well? Or... maybe it's just me.

Anyway - good luck to England tonight.

Offensive (?) poster

This is another photo from my archives, this time from 2009. 

The poster on this bus-shelter originally showed a naked woman, sunbathing, lying on her front, wearing only ... boots. It was for a shoe company.
I passed this spot a lot, and the poster must have been up for a year or so, I’d think.

It had always puzzled me as to why the advertising company put it there. The site is in Shelton, a well-known multi-ethnic area, and I was pretty sure it would offend Muslims who passed it on the way to the mosque.

Eventually, as you can see, the naked body was carefully (but anonymously) blacked out with paint. By the careful way in which it was done, I’d think it was an organised protest.

A fortnight later, it was replaced with another poster altogether.

Gertie Gitana - in Stoke

Talking of Gertie Gitana (see posting a few days ago), I realised that - apart from the spot in the photo above - I couldn't think of anywhere in Staffordshire that our local superstar of the past is remembered.

This poster is found in Gitana Street in Hanley near the Stage Door pub, though, curiously, it is unlabelled (with only the name of the Theakston beer company over it) so, if you weren't aware, you'd never know that it was Gertie. It's fading too.
The council renamed the street as Gitana Street because her family once lived in it.

There used also to be a pub in Hartshill called 'Gitana's' but I think it is now an Indian restaurant.

Link: Life of Gertie Gitana

Jesus and cake

Just laughed my socks off at this poster I saw in Hanley. It shows the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting of The Last Supper (the one that Jesus held with his disciples), but with a big fruit cake superimposed on it, in front of Jesus; and the words 'People - Jesus - Cake' underneath.

It's irreverent I suppose but, after all, Christians will have created it themselves, as it's for the Christian young people's meeting room in central Hanley - so that's okay I presume...
I think 'Church Without Walls' youth workers work from there with clubbers late into Saturday nights too (that's why it is called a 'chill out lounge' I think)..

The poster strikes the right tone all round I think, making both Christians and non-Christians laugh. Quite an achievement!