MY POINT OF VIEW 21 (by Tatiana Sisquella)
Well, here I am again. I could start by writing a few lines in which I express my rage that the summer holidays have come to an end, or my sorrow at being forced to get back into the daily routine or, even worse, my feeling of nostalgic longing to re-live what may very well turn out to have been the best summer I’ve ever spent in my life. Nevertheless, while not ruling out completely any of the above options, I have finally decided to leave them for later on, for when my head is cooler and my brain a little calmer, and the hangover from so many days of relaxation and hedonism has had a little time to pass.
Today, on the other hand, I should like to bring to your attention a series of advertisements I came across on my way to work on my first day back. These adverts I saw are on the Diagonal, and are easily identifiable because they are in the form of a parcel wrapped up in brown paper and string. By this I mean that it is the bus-stop advertising signs themselves that are wrapped up in this mysterious packaging, which is accompanied by a postmark reading ¨New York¨ and a big wax seal to prove (in a slightly over-the-top way, as you can see) that the package is unopened. Not only that, there is also a message written on top of the wrapping paper reading in Spanish: ¨YA ESTÁ AQUͨ (¨IT´S HERE! ¨).
¨It’s here! ¨…hmm, just like me. This was, in fact, the first thing that passed through my mind after over a month of not living in the city of Barcelona. I’m here, too. But this was not the thought that made the biggest impression on my brain, still slowed down as it was by all those long summer drinks….
The second thought that came to me was that this type of advertisement (a bus-stop advertising hoarding wrapped up as if it were a parcel sent to you directly and with a message clearly designed to arouse your curiosity) was going to end up by provoking somebody who has never smashed a street-light in her life (i.e., me), who has never ever scribbled graffiti on a door (still me) and who has never even scratched “Gladys was here” on a park-bench (still me), to have an incredible desire to tear off that damned paper to find out what the big surprise was that was hidden underneath.
Suffice it to say that I soon found myself tearing off some of the paper on one of these hoardings to find out what was so special that it had to be hidden under a layer of advertisement paper. Fortunately one of my friends stopped me just in time with the warning, “Hasn’t it occurred to you that there might be a hidden camera somewhere?”
What a coincidence that they’ve chosen this sort of advertising strategy to adorn the streets when everybody’s just come back from their holidays. Or could it be that they’ve got it all worked out and know that this is the time when we most need novelties, surprises and a little bit of fantasy to stop the return to the daily grind from getting us down?
One thing that’s clear is that for the moment it certainly helped to distract my attention on my first trip back to work after my holidays and that, thanks to this, the big return was a little bit less of a drag.
What would be great now would be to find out in a few days´ time that underneath all that mysterious wrapping-paper there was no photograph of a deodorant or of some new car they’ve just brought out, or no new bargain deal offered by a mobile phone company. In fact, it would be great if we never did find out what was hidden inside the parcel.
QUESTION: Why Barcelona?
ANSWER: Because you’ll always find a present when you’re least expecting it.
