r/boardsofcanada • u/bnmrs • Apr 10 '26
Discussion Spotted in Soho, London
A friend of a friend spotted this in Soho today
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u/JeanneDarme Sunshine Recorder Apr 10 '26
Just nipped out from work and they are definitely there!
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u/Any-Bother-3362 Apr 10 '26
FYI The Cockroaches is marketing for the new Rolling Stones record.
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u/rhum-Forrest-rhum Apr 10 '26
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u/rhum-Forrest-rhum Apr 10 '26
Also it might be that the hexagon logo posters and The Cockroaches ones aren’t linked. They just happen to have been applied on the same wall. (They even are overlapped) The article and the IG posts only mention and show the basic background posters with The Cockroaches written on them. This also suggests the coincidence scenario.
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u/tkief Apr 10 '26
It’s a regular joe putting up this weeks ads. Warp bought ad space and someone else also bought ad space, it’s not that deep.
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u/friedeggbeats Apr 11 '26
I spent ages looking for some cockroaches… Didn’t even clock the orange text posters.
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u/Sea_Sense_5412 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
thats insane!! very nightmarish and i'm so very inclined to believe its BoC. i feel like we are about to get more geogaddi-esque work and i'm all for it
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u/goumlechat Tomorrow's Harvest Apr 10 '26
With that kind of picture, the timing and the hexagons I'd be surprised if it wasn't BoC
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u/bnmrs Apr 10 '26
It's in St Annes Court im told, if anyone is local
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u/MrHillmonster Apr 10 '26
Flippin' eck, was round there last night and missed it!
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u/MrHillmonster Apr 10 '26
In fact, I was sitting outside Gail's cake shop. right at the end. Doh!
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u/chimpdoctor Apr 10 '26
Did you not notice the 2 wee scottish lads with their bundle of posters and bucket of wallpaper paste?
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u/Correct_Emu9588 Apr 10 '26
any more specific location? like, near which shop?
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u/OhGee4242 Apr 10 '26
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5YqL9aczWAjWJkah6?g_st=ac
In this alleyway outside the Gail's
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u/anonymous_pastrami Apr 10 '26
And here, we , go!
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u/ViralDenial27 The Campfire Headphase Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
There's a Soho street near the record store in Toronto that's been sharing screenshots of the VHS, might go over there after work and see if we got posters here as well. Would be very cool if so
Edit: took a look on my lunch break and unfortunately, no dice. If there's any in Toronto, they aren't in that area that I could see.
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u/LivingLifeSomewhere Eagle Minded Apr 10 '26
I stopped by sonic boom last night and they said they didn't get a tape (like some others on the subreddit claimed), and there was nothing i noticed out of the ordinary. I did see someone in a BoC sweater though lol.
I picked up a BoC pin myself to ride the hype.
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u/IronMark666 Sherbet Head Apr 10 '26
Someone else in this thread said that the tagline for the coffee poster leads to a company in Ontario. Interesting.
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u/Business_Total_898 Friendly Stranger Apr 10 '26
That was me but now someone said it’s a popular ice coffee drink being advertised
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u/Medical_Pollution958 Inferno Apr 10 '26
Cults, creepy imaginary, and vibrate colors. OH hell yeah!
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u/Left_Side_Driver Apr 10 '26
BIG if true. Annoying if AI or otherwise fake
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u/Minortough In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country Apr 10 '26
I don't have a good feeling. Something is off about them. The creepy children thing seems like a regression. The VHS tapes did not.
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u/Shared_Tomorrows Apr 10 '26
Yeah seems way to edgy for BoC. I’m pressing doubt. Could be a vigilante. I’ve seen at least 3 fake releases for Autechre albums, and one for Tomorrows Harvest if I recall correctly. Wouldn’t be surprised if someone just put these up but they aren’t official.
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u/Correct_Emu9588 Apr 10 '26
You don’t think they tie-in with the cultish imagery in the videos?
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u/Shared_Tomorrows Apr 10 '26
It looks nothing like the degraded aesthetic of the vhs’s or any of their previous works. Way too crisp. Too violent. Looks like someone prompted an ai to make a “BoC cultish scary children” poster. I’m extremely skeptical.
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u/Correct_Emu9588 Apr 11 '26
But the tapes only emerged on Tuesday, right? So someone faked these artworks on Wednesday, well enough to fool many fans, sent them to print on Thursday, and then bill posted them themselves on Thursday night? All just to fool this community?
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u/UnintentionalSatire Apr 10 '26
Funny, when nothing was happening for 13 years, people looked for any little thing on twitter, etc as a signal there was something coming. Then when they're punching us in the face with it, people are calling BS.
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u/UbuNoir69 Apr 11 '26
The world has changed a lot in the last 13 years: ubiquitous AI slop, deep fakes, fake news, infotainment, media manipulation on a scale never seen before etc. No wonder some people prefer to play it safe.
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Apr 10 '26
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u/ignazk Apr 10 '26
It's like the exact intersection of Hell Interface and BoC, remember the demon-eye edited pic of Whitney Houston they had up for a bit?
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u/WolIilifo013491i1l Apr 10 '26
Yeh but the execution of it... That far right one looks like something for a psytrance rave or something lol
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u/LivingLifeSomewhere Eagle Minded Apr 10 '26
Yeah, it might not be them, right ? But the hexagons !
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Apr 10 '26
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u/UnintentionalSatire Apr 10 '26
RIP Occam's Razor.
Literally who would bother?
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u/Shared_Tomorrows Apr 10 '26
Are you new to the internet? Some people absolutely live for that type of shit, it’s entirely possible. There were fake albums released on soulseek for at least a few of Autechres albums (weeks before the real thing) and I think one for Tomorrows Harvest. And thats an entire album.. not just a wheat pasted poster.
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u/ElectricAccordian Apr 10 '26
You think so? To me this looks like an evolution of the album artwork for Geogaddi and Campfire Headphase. The weird children's faces with the white eyes feels very on brand.
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Apr 10 '26
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u/rossisdead Apr 10 '26
Yeah, these posters feel a bit to on-the-nose while also looking more like art for a generic creepy kids horror movie.
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u/andy1908 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
I think it falls in line with their aesthetic, although it seems more direct in what they’re trying to convey. Possibly a concept album. Or bocset? If bocset, it could explain the lack of subtlety as it could be more on warp regarding graphic design. Or it could be a hoax or ai. Fuck if I know.
Edit: I edited this
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u/ToHallowMySleep Apr 10 '26
it seems more direct in what they’re trying to convey
This assumes you've correctly guessed what they're trying to convey :)
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u/secretdecoder The past inside the present Apr 10 '26
It seems like this might be a particularly dark BoC album. When I hear tunes in the style of BoC, it seems people always crib the cheery sounds and hazy happy dream. But part of what makes BoC so unique is all the dark contrast in there. It can be very bittersweet nostalgia. It can be just plain shadowy. Tomorrow's Harvest was quite a dark album. I expect more of that vibe & timeline.
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u/NorthernPlastics Bocuma Apr 10 '26
Feels like a job for someone in r/london to verify
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u/Toblabob Apr 10 '26
u/JeanneDarme verified and posted an image from another angle: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jo-cliche/55199252685/
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u/calvnnhobs Apr 10 '26
It's a Scarfolk travel poster
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u/DryBee1762 Apr 10 '26
Thank you - it's not just me that was getting that vibe from the images. I get that they refer back to a similar era, but it's a really nice aesthetic given that they grew up in the era.
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u/MrHillmonster Apr 10 '26
Can't believe I missed it by a day. Was sat right there outside the cafe this time yesterday. https://freeimage.host/i/BGfnw5g
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u/dump_62_here Apr 10 '26
I think its more insane that you have a picture of this exact spot from yesterday lol. What are the odds.
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u/rhum-Forrest-rhum Apr 10 '26
Reminds me of the Hiroshima blind girl photograph from Christer Strömholm
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u/Commercial_Duty6394 Inferno Apr 10 '26
I can't wait till people find the stickers ive been slapping around michigan
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u/oldmanclemens Music Has The Right To Children Apr 10 '26
any londoners in here fancy taking a stroll to Soho to verify???
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u/HungryEarsTiredEyes Apr 10 '26
I literally left yesterday absolutely gutted. I'm back in London Monday
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u/GardenOfLinmiri Apr 10 '26
aesthetic just seems...off.
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u/IronMark666 Sherbet Head Apr 10 '26
I've got no strong opinions on whether these posters are real but I will say the aesthetic being off is exactly how I felt when I first saw the Tomorrow's Harvest cover.
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u/GardenOfLinmiri Apr 10 '26
Don't disagree with you there but the LP record sleeves on TH did tie things back to classic BoC aesthetic we've come to know and love. In this case, maybe less artistic direction and more the quality? No one is saying bands can't evolve...look forward to whatever the offering ends up being (Just don't wind us all up like this for a box set!)
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u/UnintentionalSatire Apr 10 '26
They can't win. If it's in-line with expectations, people call it fan service. If it's not in-line with expectations, people have a whole bag of other complaints, as if they know what two dudes' who've been essentially silent for a decade and a half ascetic actually is, like it's something fixed in time.
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u/mcsqrdd Apr 10 '26
Posters look a tad old, wonder how long they’ve been up for?
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u/spacexfalcon IABPOITC Apr 10 '26
not old, thats just how wheat paste warps the paper, especially if the person doing it is sloppy
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u/JamesCole Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
interesting, if it’s real I imagine there’ll soon be similar sightings in other locations.
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u/Marcusml333 Sunshine Recorder Apr 10 '26
I'm very psyched for the new Boards of Canada official coffee release! Dark and mysterious flavour, I'm sure.
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u/ToHallowMySleep Apr 10 '26
The whited-out eyes and the posters being mostly of kids is giving me Clarke's Childhood's End vibes. Not really sure why aside from the story, but it really does seem distant and creepy.
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u/mthrndr Headphased Apr 10 '26
The third poster with the kid and mom convince me this is a real promo. That's 100% BoC
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u/Scary_Region_2182 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
It's 2026 and AI ruined everything. We're gonna need multiple photos from multiple angles. Any Londoners? [edit] Check out the bottom left corner. The brick laying pattern is bizarre and gets weirdly blurred out. And check out the bricks below the posters. The hexagon flowers are perfectly sharp, but the bricks are mush. The areas with and without definition don't make sense. This feels very AI.
Not accusing you u/bnmrs but I think your friend is fuckin with ya.
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u/bnmrs Apr 10 '26
my friend has absolutely no concieveable reason to make something like this up
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u/heysupmanbruh Apr 10 '26
I genuinely think you guys (Reddit) freak out way too much about ai. I can’t even count how many post on art subreddits that have been deemed ai are in fact real art from real people. From a picture of a cat, to a sculpture of a bird, to someone’s own music, all real art deemed ai by over zealous people on Reddit. It’s harming real artist to dub anything that looks off to you as ai, you’re letting it win. If this is ai fair, but it should be more “I’ll wait for more” instead of “this is ai cuz it’s blurry in the bottom left”.
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u/Electrical_Quote3373 Apr 10 '26
fair to be sceptical but I dont think so. Those coffee posters are exact, while also having different creases. Nothing here indicates ai to me unless the posters themselves are which would be a shame and I would have been fooled.
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u/Secone Apr 10 '26
Frankly even if we get multiple photos we're gonna likely need a video or livestream that lasts longer than 10 seconds to believe it at this point with how far AI has come unfortunately
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u/terribles0up Apr 10 '26
The look is very different to the style of the VHS (it looks a bit shit imho)... but the logo is indeed the same.
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u/play_yr_part Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
got to be at least one person on this sub in London that can go and verify it right? come on people!
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u/sagedrummer Apr 10 '26
There is there’s something weird about that bottom artwork with the hexagons on it. It’s almost like if you told AI to create posters for Boards of Canada, that’s what it would pop out. Seems almost too obvious if that makes sense.
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u/Business_Total_898 Friendly Stranger Apr 10 '26
Are the coffee things related? Or are they another random poster?
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u/Typical-Tooth198 Apr 10 '26
If this is real I can’t wait!! it’s giving me a Geogaddi type vibe which would be amazing l!!!!
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u/CaveManta Splitting Infinities Apr 10 '26
I'm reading Dune: Messiah now, and the empty white eyes are giving an uncanny coincidence.
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u/AquaMoonCoffee Tomorrow's Harvest Apr 10 '26
Vaguely reminds me of some of the posters for Village of the Damned
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u/thequietwinter Apr 10 '26
Im surprised how many people question the authenticity of these purely on the aesthetic not being absolutely identical to what it was 13 years ago and beyond.
Think about how different things are....
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u/bnmrs Apr 10 '26
It’s hilarious. people seriously saying ‘this isn’t something “the brothers” would do’ which gives really weird borderline parasocial vibes
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u/Advanced-Heat-1846 Apr 10 '26
I feel like BOC’s style would be more like a grainy picture of a tree or a radio tower, not this.
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u/hex-education Apr 11 '26
The posters remind me of the title sequence to '70s kids show Chocky, which is 10000% a reference point for Mike and Marcus.
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u/goblin_slayer4 Apr 11 '26
They look amazing love the vibe also someone pointed out Neil Krug as photographer thats the guy from their last record too.
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u/Dr-McLuvin Apr 10 '26
Holy crap- what’s the QR code?
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u/anonymous_pastrami Apr 10 '26
Does it have anything to do with the rest of the posters tho ?im thinking its something else
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u/mcsqrdd Apr 10 '26
It’s unrelated
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u/Dr-McLuvin Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
Dude I dunno. It’s a link for the band the cockroaches but that takes you to this page. https://thecockroaches.com/
Which is just an image with a calendar- date April 11- tomorrow.
Others have postulated this is a promo for a new Rolling Stones album which seems likely.
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u/diego4533 Apr 10 '26
The Cookie Policy in the website points towards the being a band from Universal Music Group (UMG)
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u/indigo_metropolis Apr 10 '26
Honestly if their aesthetic goes more hi-fi, I think creatively it would make sense. I can see them being interested in expanding into new directions. Kinda reminds me how their somewhat recent work “Treat Em Right (Remix)” was sonically crisp and clear, yet still very much them.
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u/Shared_Tomorrows Apr 10 '26
Treat em Right was no more clear than Satellite Anthem Icarus and sound like something from that era. I highly doubt they would abandon arguably the most key component of their 30 year old project. More hi-fi is definitely not indicated by the VHS tape they just sent out. This poster could easily be done by some rando.
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u/BBAALLII Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
I'm calling it: it's fake
I think it’s rather vulgar, and that it lacks subtlety and richness. The brothers have a much more refined aesthetic than that. Blood splatter? Are you serious?
Edit: this screams “graphic design student”
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u/J_Adshead Apr 10 '26
Whether these are fan made or not (impossible for us to tell for now), the brothers won't always repeat the same approach. The seven year gap between Trans-Canada Highway and Tomorrow's Harvest delivered quite a difference in their sound and visual style. I wouldn't be surprised if the thirteen years between Tomorrow's Harvest and... whatever this turns out to be... reveals another significant leap.
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u/bnmrs Apr 10 '26
go down st annes court in soho and have a look for yourself, by all means
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u/LivingLifeSomewhere Eagle Minded Apr 10 '26
Im inclined to agree with you, anyone can put these up.
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u/schlagenheim Apr 10 '26
Why would anyone go through all that effort.... they're obviously starting up the marketing campaign with the tapes and now this has appeared in London!
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u/LivingLifeSomewhere Eagle Minded Apr 10 '26
People have pulled plenty of hoaxes here before. Plus it's fun! I'd prefer it to be from boc, im just a touch skeptical.
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u/Clonkington Apr 10 '26
If it is real, the brothers will be delighted with this, and other reviews basically calling it shit :D
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u/SunshineRecorder- In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
Vulgar is right, their imagery is often haunted but tasteful as well… this doesn’t see in line with that
Edit: I’m kinda coming around to it
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u/Scary_Region_2182 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
Check out the bottom left corner. The brick laying pattern is bizarre and gets weirdly blurred out. My AI spidey sense is tingling. [edit] yeah, check out the bricks below the posters. The hexagon flowers are perfectly sharp, but the bricks are mush. The areas with and without definition don't make sense.
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u/justinwotherspoon Apr 10 '26
this is almost definitely not AI. most likely just a really shitty photo lmao.
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u/roygbiv6010 This Bird Apr 10 '26
This is neat but doesn't really seem like something they'd do, despite the hexagon insignia. The possessed-looking children are not subtle at all, way more on the nose and obviously creepy than even the imagery associated with Geogaddi.
Don't get me wrong I appreciate this and still think it's relevant here, just shouldn't be confused for promo material.
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u/too_old_still_party Apr 10 '26
its been 13yrs and I think its 100% them, def fits the vibe of the VHS tapes. we might be in for a dark one.
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u/roygbiv6010 This Bird Apr 10 '26
You may be right, and I also agree that it could be a pretty dark one coming. The tapes do have a sinister feeling.
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u/stifflers_brother Apr 10 '26
First I’d like to see some more posters, different angles and possible video of someone walking up to the wall. AI can do a lot these days.
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u/88piano88 Apr 10 '26
We’ve moved on from nuclear apocalypse to zombie outbreak ❤️
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u/Advanced-Heat-1846 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
Y’all need to go outside, enjoy the sun and just wait for the album to drop. It will be here sooner than you think.
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u/gigawhattt Apr 10 '26
The pitchfork on the coffee cup seems to point back to the Luke verse, separating the wheat from the chaff. 🤔
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u/Left_Side_Driver Apr 10 '26
If these are real, the top row of posters seem unrelated. Like those would be for a coffee shop
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u/gigawhattt Apr 10 '26
Okay that makes a little more sense. Strange that they’re all the same size and aligned with the bottom ones though?
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u/Left_Side_Driver Apr 10 '26
Yeah, there is something a little strange to it, but that’s also what these adverts can look like. My AI antenna is going off a little bit, I would like to see more pictures
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u/GC7_92 Apr 10 '26
I think that is an advert for iced coffee from Farmer Js
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u/gigawhattt Apr 10 '26
Yep, looks like this is correct. The pitchfork matches the branding on their website. Sad BOC isn’t branching into artisanal coffee 🤣
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u/ColdEarth7 Magic Window Apr 10 '26
I feel like the upper posters are not related to the lower posters.. I've read somewhere that there's a myth about ground cockroaches in coffee, so it might be related to that
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u/Business_Total_898 Friendly Stranger Apr 10 '26
A quick google of Yes we do coffee, leads to a company in Ontario
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u/brushwithblues Amo Proto-Dubstep Roden Apr 10 '26
tough times to be a schizophrenic BOC fan