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Contest update: Vintage Ads of Fictional Futures

April 21, 2008 in But is it art?, Parody & Satire by Mark A. Rayner

The last updates are on the gallery page.

Thanks to everyone who has put together a product, service or concept from a fictional future with a vintage ad — there are 30 entries all told, and boy the judging is going to be tough. I’ll post the finalists tomorrow morning, and then let you all vote on who wins. What are the stakes? Well, they’re listed below.

In an effort to keep this page from crashing again, I’ve done a collage of just a few of the entries. Click on it, or here, to see all 30 entries:

Vintage Ads of Fictional Futures


The Rules:

So, find some vintage ads, and then insert a product from a fictional future — it can be from a book, movie, TV, etc. The only proviso is that it has to have been written by someone else, so none of your own bizarre fictional futures. (Someone else’s bizarre future is fine, so all you William S. Burroughs fans are not barred from competition.)

  1. create your masterpiece
  2. post it to your blog
  3. link to this post (or better yet, let me know where it is via email or in the comments)
  4. wait for the aplomb and/or ridicule of your peers.

There are prizes!

What, pray tell is the prize? Well, if you win, you can choose from:

  • a prominent walk-on role in my next novel
  • a copy of THE AMADEUS NET
  • a “mystery” item from within the bowels of my desk.

The second-place winner will choose from the remaining prizes, and the bronze winner gets whatever is left. Worth playing for? The contest will run until (Sunday, April 20).

You may want to check out plan59.com or Flickr or Photobucket for inspiration.

You can find my original post about this here. All the artists at humor-blogs.com are invited!

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    • 32 comments

    Comments feed for this article

    April 12, 2008 at 1:22 am

    don

    I’m on it Mark. I intend to sweep the opposition from the field. There will be weeping, gnashing of teeth, and lamentations from the women and children when I unveil my master piece! (Damn, there goes my Soylent Green idea)

    tremble and quiver like jelly you soon to be losers! (hmm, jello,)

    April 13, 2008 at 12:19 am

    Alex L

    http://popeterry666.blogspot.com/2008/04/what_12.html

    My entry… hopefully a massive winner. Its the bottom image.

    April 13, 2008 at 6:02 pm

    Shawn Wolfe

    Here’s a supermarket sign for Soylent Green, designed and carved in wood by me.
    Approx. 60″ wide

    April 13, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    Shawn Wolfe

    oops - here’s the link
    Here’s a supermarket sign for Soylent Green, designed and carved in wood by me.
    Approx. 60″ wide

    http://flickr.com/photos/shawnwolfe/1992252151/in/set-72157594291726077/

    April 13, 2008 at 9:38 pm

    DashingDan

    Someone should do an advert for Phorm (the spyware company)!

    April 13, 2008 at 9:51 pm

    CitizenLand

    Something modeled after Greg Bear’s “Eon” novels perhaps…

    5th Chamber vacations!

    Axis City Escape!

    April 13, 2008 at 10:24 pm

    Michael Zed

    I thought I would be safe on the third reading, but “now with more baby” almost made tea come out of my nose.

    April 14, 2008 at 9:27 am

    Mark A. Rayner

    Thanks Michael. Love the new entries guys! m.

    April 14, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    Rickey Henderson

    Rickey will accept nothing short of first place in the contest, culimating in a ghost writing gig for your next book. Be warned Mark: Rickey is nothing if not competitive.

    April 14, 2008 at 4:45 pm

    bagel

    Wow, I’m so going to lose!

    Oh, maybe Rickey would win and you could mail him a pronoun! That way, everyone wins!

    April 14, 2008 at 10:34 pm

    Gary Piserchio

    Sorry, Mark, I … just … couldn’t … stop myself. Now introducing the new Frigidaire HAL 9000:

    http://www.easilydiscouragedman.com/2008/04/less-killier-frigidaire-hal-9000.html

    April 15, 2008 at 9:09 am

    Mark A. Rayner

    I don’t know Bagel, I like the soma ad.

    Rickey — you’re freakin’ me out.

    Thanks for the new entries Martin and Gary! I’ll be updating the post soon.

    April 16, 2008 at 10:35 pm

    LOBO

    I know I can’t “vote”, but I LOVE the ‘Tyrell’ entry.

    … Androids dream of more than you might guess!

    :)

    April 17, 2008 at 3:39 am

    Alex L

    http://popeterry666.blogspot.com/2008/04/what_12.html

    two more entries in the same post as before (the bottom two pics)… I hope these are legal, I’m not sure vulcan sex shows were ever spoken about in Star trek, but I just got the feeling thats what Spock did on the weekends.

    April 17, 2008 at 4:49 am

    Mark

    Nerd warning.

    Alex L. - In Deep Space 9 there was a popular holosuite program in Quark’s called Vulcan Love Slave. I doubt it was quite like your advert … but then again, who knows?

    End of nerd warning.

    April 17, 2008 at 8:26 am

    Mark A. Rayner

    Mark, are you kidding? This entire contest has broken the needle on the nerd-o-meter. Alex, the Alien one is truly disturbing (and hilarious). I’ll get it up on the gallery later today.

    April 18, 2008 at 1:42 am

    Tom Marcinko

    Mark, thanks for posting the spindizzy ad (quoting the first line of one of the Cities in Flight stories from memory — maybe somebody can correct it for us). It definitely made my day.

    Looks like the model in my ad is another Nexus-6.

    The upright palanquin is from Alastair Reynolds’ universe, of course.

    April 18, 2008 at 5:55 am

    Alex L

    @Mark -Well theres Vulcans of all tastes isnt there… well lets pretend anyway

    @Mark A. Rayner- I was worried because at first glance (the chest burster) it really just looks like a poo… which would take the competition into really disturbing areas

    April 18, 2008 at 6:59 am

    Alex L

    And one more

    http://popeterry666.blogspot.com/2008/04/what_12.html

    same post as before bottom pic. It references the japanese Anime ‘Ghost in the shell: Stand Alone Complex’, I’d recommend it and the two movies of it to anyone.

    April 20, 2008 at 11:32 am

    bagel

    Two more entries from Tom, both of which have stumped me. If you have a guess, leave a note in the post comments:

    The second one is from Weapon Shop Of Isher. The first one seems like something from Bester, but I can’t place it.

    April 20, 2008 at 11:21 pm

    alejna

    I wanted to do this, but just haven’t gotten my act together. It’s fun to see what others (whose acts are apparently together) have gotten together, though.

    April 21, 2008 at 8:08 am

    Mark A. Rayner

    Impressive Bagel. Not to worry Alenja, we’ll do it again sometime. m.

    April 21, 2008 at 1:55 pm

    bagel

    Ok so did I win yet?

    April 21, 2008 at 2:29 pm

    Chris

    lol. I still wanna know where my other two entries are on here. I hope he got them…. This was waaaay too much fun. Anyone figure out Tom’s second image?

    April 21, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    Mark A. Rayner

    Sorry, I missed those Chris — they’re up now.

    Bagel, you’re going to have to wait until tomorrow morning, just like everyone else. And there will be voting. :) m.

    April 21, 2008 at 8:59 pm

    chris

    Yay, my goofiness is awarded :). Now where are the superdelegates and how much do I have to pay them?

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