[ by Charles Cameron — playfully expressing his usual preference for play over terror ]
.

In the upper panel, above, we have Inspire magazine’s take on the San Francisco AirTrain — an ad for mayhem.

In the lower panel we see an ad for Airtrain Brisbane, which suggests that traffic between you and the airport may be slow enough for you to solve the Sudoku puzzle on the billboard before you pass it… and suggests you take the Airtrain, where you will presumably be able to solve a similar puzzle on your iPad before reaching the airport in time for your flight.

The text of the Inspire ad reads:

For how long will you live in tension? Instead of just sitting, having no solution, simply stand up. Pack your tools of destruction. Assemble your bomb, ready for detonation.

It follows from this wording, incidentally, that “you” are in no hurry to catch a plane since — like Stephen Dedalus in James Joyce‘s Portrait of the Artist — “you” imagine “heaven” to be your destination.

**

But look again at the question Inspire asks:

For how long will you live in tension?

There is plenty of tension right there between the two ads: while AQ-style terrorism is designed to elicit terror, Sudoku suggests playful relaxation.

I’d like to take that a little farther. I’m more literate than numerate, to be honest — so I find crossword puzzles more appealing than Sudoku. And heck, I was even beaten once in boarding school (four with a bamboo cane) for doing The Times crossword instead of my math homework. So here’s an alternative, more peaceable version of our two images:

The upper panel shows a decidedly more pleasant variant on the Sudoku ad — while the lower panel shows Edward McGowan‘s original photo, which AQAP’s Inspire magazine swiped for use in their ad, and which is far more restful on the eye without the garish reddening that Inspire added for dire effect.

**

Sources:

SFGate report on the Inspire ad

Ads of the World, AirTrain Sudoku ad

Ads of the World, AirTrain crossword ad

SFGate account of McGowan’s original photo

The Brisbane ads were designed by De Pasquale of Brisbane, Creative Director Cos Luccitti, Copywriter Jake McLennan, Art Director Daniele Milazzo.

**

One day, perhaps, you or I will be on our way to BNE Brisbane or SFO San Francisco, and we’ll see an ad that shows a DoubleQuotes board, with one panel filled with a neat quote or headline from the day’s news and the other one left blank for the reader to fill in… and a question:

Mind quick enough to try for a creative leap?