'Dystopian' posters for Netflix’s Black Mirror shock London tube commuters
DOOM-laden billboards heralding the eagerly awaited fourth series of Black Mirror have shocked commuters at a busy London tube station.
Evening Standard
“Dystopian posters as #BlackMirror takes over Old Street station. A marvellously upbeat message to start the NY.”
Cryptic adverts featuring the slogan “The worst is yet to come” have been placed throughout Old Street station, and on the giant roundabout under which it is located.
One reads: “Brain implants let parents monitor teens”, while another says: “Hackers blackmail victims using their internet history.”
Both are references to plot lines in the acclaimed six-episode series, which was made available on the online streaming network Netflix on December 29.
Writing on Instagram, Sophie Wright said: “Dystopian posters as #BlackMirror takes over Old Street station. A marvellously upbeat message to start the NY.”
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Meanwhile fellow commuter Alex Jurcynski tweeted: “Buying all the ad space in Old Street station and turning the silicon roundabout into a giant ad for #BlackMirror is one of the most heroically subversive things I’ve ever seen.”
Another said: “Kudos to the Black Mirror advertising for freaking me out as I moved through Old Street before I registered it could only be Black Mirror.”
Rights for the series, the brainchild of satirist Charlie Brooker, was originally screened on Channel 4, but the rights were acquired by Netflix in 2015.
It has been hailed as a 21st century take on the Twilight Zone, exploring the ways in which technology may shape human existence in the not-so-distant future – and not always for the better.
Since its launch in 2011, it has built up a cult following, and last year’s episode, San Junipero, scooped Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, while the second episode of the latest batch, ArkAngel, is directed by Jodie Foster.
Brooker himself has commented: “Each episode has a different cast, a different setting, and even a different reality. But they’re all about the way we live now; and the way we might be living in 10 minutes’ time if we’re clumsy.”
Marketing company Appear Here, which organised the campaign, said: "We partnered with TfL to re-imagine the London Underground experience and enhance the everyday journey.
"We didn’t want to fill Old Street station with your average station retail and this activation embodies just that.
Channel 4
“Old Street is filled with forward-thinkers and early-adopters, which makes it the ideal place for brands to test out more daring ideas."
A spokesman for Transport for London said: “Advertising like this generates vital income that is invested in modernising the transport network for all of our customers.”
This is not the first time Black Mirror adverts have raised eyebrows. When the second series launched in 2013, Martin Saunders, a father living in Surrey, complained to Reigate and Banstead Borough Councilabout a billboard outside his home.
He told getsurrey.co.uk: "The poster is terrifying and will give kids nightmares.
"This billboard is on a major school run route, small children should not have to look at this image as they leave their house on the way to school as my seven, five and two-year-old do."
