"Obay" Bus Ads in Canada, page 1
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reply posted on 14-2-2008 @ 09:48 PM by Bumr055
Thats pretty strange, I hope they don't start having adds everywhere like this...

It might have something to do with this guy...
(yeah its ebaumsworld.. fox news video)
Although it doesn't really look like the same style adds and theres not even a website.

I would imagine it could have an effect on us if we read 'obay' 'be a good boy' and soo on everywhere we looked.. I thought it would be a but more disguised though.



reply posted on 14-2-2008 @ 10:34 PM by beaverg
www.obay.net...

(CLICK IT) It makes perfect sense for it to be these guys.

I'm guessing it's these guys because the ebay ripoff (oBay) actually reroutes through ebay itself it seemed.

[edit on 14-2-2008 by beaverg]


reply posted on 14-2-2008 @ 11:13 PM by Gools
More:



Some very good sleuthing by people on another website including a mysterious web address and a phone number with a strange recording!!

External Website


I've been looking around the net and found a few suspicious things.

www.obay.ca , pretty much a blank site. One of the pre-links is www.becauseIsaidso.com which has a link to a page called "Amy's Page". Why is this relevant? Amy is the name of a kid mentioned in one of the ads "When my Amy started having thoughts of her own I nipped it in the bud with Obay!"

Finally, we had a radio ad today which gave a number. 1-888-YOU-OBAY


Here's a transcript of what's said on the recording if anyone's interested.

Quote:
"....Calling 1-888-YOU-OBAY. There's nothing worse than a child who won't do what they're told. You raise them, feed them, cloth them, sit through their violin recitals; and how do they pay you back?? They go ahead and think for themselves!

It's not right and it's not what you had in mind... Thankfully there's OBay! A new remedy from the makers of "why?BecauseIsaidso!" And "NotUnderMyRoof!"

Is your child ignoring your subtle suggestions? Are they not getting the hint when you tell them what to do!? It's time for OBay; Are they making important life decisions without listening to your valuable irriputable input!? Hello OBay! OBay works where other parental controls, like shouting, don't. Just one dose and you'll see a difference... Your truculant teenagers will be transformed into dosile pussycats, open to your thoughts, your ideas and most importantly the future you've mapped out for them.

So order your supply of OBay today... Because YOUR Wish is YOUR command!"


Whatever they are up to... it's working.

They've got people's attention and better not waste that precious "commodity".
.

[edit on 2/14/2008 by Gools]



reply posted on 14-2-2008 @ 11:23 PM by Sanity Lost
Obay Auction and Obay pills not related according to this story.

My money's on this being some sort of promotion for anything but medication. Here's the website of the advertising company.

Astral Media

Good find, OP!


reply posted on 15-2-2008 @ 06:00 AM by ConspiracyNut23
To me this looks like some kind of spoof ad like Adbusters does, so I googled "Obay + adbusters" and found a blog entry by the creator of obay.info, Pete Ippel.

He denies responsibility for the ad campaign, and he believes (like me) that it is some kind of spoof ad campaign. He writes:

I interpret the bus stop poster “culture jam” presently in Canada as a parody ad campaign which critiques adults and calls for more active parenting. By using a pun, Obay and it’s relationship to obey a direct command, the group responsible wishes to show how drugs are no substitution for “present” adults responsible for child rearing.

[snip]

The ad seems to be in response to the drugging of youth and the increase in diagnosis of ADHD. Regarding who would fund such a campaign, I look to the ongoing war between the Church of Scientology and Psychiatry professionals, and will be interested to note who funded the campaign.


He also explains the purpose for creating obay.info:

Commodiphilia, diagnosed as assigning value to valueless objects in the off chance that it may be worth something to another disparate individual, is an artist coined term that references both the commodity, and the sexual perversion of pedophilia. Obay.info critiques the mega-consumerist culture that surrounds Ebay, and is both a visual pun and a cautionary piece that succeeds when the user questions why they are so involved with buying and selling of the most mundane possessions.

hypermodern.net...


Also notice that he has noticed the hits coming from ATS and Yahoo answers.

Originally posted by Yarcofin
Oh, and an EBay ripoff. Perhaps the strangest thing is that it actually does have a TM symbol above the trade names... which I didn't think you could do unless it actually was a registered trademark.


Being a parody, it's probably allowed under fair use.

You can see some spoof ads that take advantage of the fair use doctrine here:
adbusters.org...

Also notice that obay.info doesn't actually sell anything, so there's no way someone could mistake it for ebay.

EDIT: SORRY Sanity Lost, I posted content from the same page you had already posted above.... mea culpa


[edit on 15/2/08 by ConspiracyNut23]


reply posted on 16-2-2008 @ 09:49 AM by Gools
I was out and about in the city early this morning and keeping a lookout for these ads. I noted at least four bus stops on my walk and didn't see them.

I know for sure I saw this add somewhere because I stopped dead in my tracks and thought "what the hell?"

Then again, I was in Kingston a few weeks ago so that might be where I saw the ad.

Anyways, the reason I'm doubting myself now is that I'm pretty sure I saw it in English (not unheard of in Montreal but there's that whole language law 101 thing to consider here) and secondly, this author claims it's an Ontario Colleges Ad Campaign:

The Ones That Mother Gives You

...we were able to track down the origin of deVilla's source and confirm (with reasonable confidence on our part) that the responsible parties are "Ontario Colleges [which] had put together their money to run an ad campaign." This may or may not be cryptically corroborated by some cached text on Google exclaiming, "I saw this on the bus yesterday. It’s the first part of a two part ad for some Ontario college thing. If I see the second half, I’ll take a picture of it and upload. Enjoy. Obay!" Those sentences no longer appear on sam.cw.leung, which either means Sam was mistaken or revealed something he shouldn't have.


Now, I've seen blog entries and comments on different sites about these things being spotted in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal (myself, with some doubt now) and even someone claiming to have seen one in New York City.

Granted that Ontario colleges may be wanting to attract students from all over Canada and maybe even major US cities but that kind of expense seems a bit much, even if several colleges pool their money together.

As of this writing, I don't think anything certain can be said for who is behind the ads. If it is the colleges, kudos to them for creating a buzz in the general population. When is the last time you remember a University making it's presence felt in the wider community? Other than your senior high school year?

Oh... and thanks to the Torontoist article for referencing abovetopsecret.
.
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