Bread Line Design

Last weekend I was doing some irresponsible drinking in Manchester and was having a ball, until we arrived at a sizable student club called 5th Avenue. After battling through the que and poaching a table I announced I was diving out for a sly cigarette and headed for the entrance, where I was promptly stopped by a man-mountain of a bouncer and told I needed a “Smoking Pass”, which was only available at the cloak room. Glancing down at the epic cloak que I gritted my teeth and went to stand in line. When I finally reached the front I was told the pass would cost me £1, and it entitled me to only four cigarettes, taking no longer than five minutes for each! She then wrapped and secured an ILLUMINOUS ORANGE BAND around my wrist. Not only was I paying a quid for the right to smoke, I’m limited to five minutes and have this glowing orange beacon attached branding me a smoker. At least finding someone with a lighter won’t be hard, a swift waist level glance across the club reveals all the other addicts. 5th Avenue justifies the £1 price “due to the cost of more people supervising the outside smoking area”

I’ve been smoking since I was 16 so I’m pretty good at it. I don’t really need supervision, and lets face it, if someone was being rowdy in the “smoking area” which is actually the cold Manchester street at the clubs entrance, the regular bouncers would just deny re-entry.

I’m all for the smoking ban. Forcing me into the god awfull British weather makes me smoke less, and can be a good place to meet fellow clubbers, but charging me for my addiction and then branding me for all to see well over steps the mark. If I was given a coloured band because I was gay, had a criminal record or HIV thered be a public outcry, so why when I’m a ciggarette addict? Lets hope 5th Avenue shifts its attitude towards smoking, because if branding segments of society becomes acceptable the future will be that little bit grimmer for all, not just us deplorable smokers.

Hats off to shorecreative over at logopond for finding this gem…

Make my logo bigger

Well the entire blog and database was deleted again. Fantastic. This time it was thanks to my piss poor host Webmania letting my account expire without any warning. Great. Word to the wise, avoid them at all costs lest you end up in disappearing blog hell.