Real or fake?

[hbelkins]

This is from the Subaru Forester ad:



US 4 intersects VT 106 at Woodstock, but I don't think this is an accurate depiction of any signage that may have been there.

[Brandon]

This is from the Subaru Forester ad:

(Image)

US 4 intersects VT 106 at Woodstock, but I don't think this is an accurate depiction of any signage that may have been there.

Fake.  Note the palm tree in the background, off to the left side of the road.  In addition, there are those God-awful huge-ass "Do Not Enter" signs California uses.

[wytout]

i was going to say the same, big ol palm tree... also I'm pretty sure there are no railroad crossings right around the area where 106 x's w/ US4, but note the railroad crossing light just behind the sign assembly in the photo

[froggie]

Several reasons why it's fake:

- No railroad in Woodstock.
- There is no Greenville, VT or Fairfield, VT.
- No traffic signals in Woodstock.
- The mileage to Springfield is all wrong.  Woodstock to Springfield is about 26 miles.
- The VT 106 shields in Woodstock are the green-on-white rectangles, not the ovals.

[hbelkins]

- The VT 106 shields in Woodstock are the green-on-white rectangles, not the ovals.

That was my original thought, having just driven all of US 4 in Vermont in November.

[Alps]

Several reasons why it's fake:

- No railroad in Woodstock.
- There is no Greenville, VT or Fairfield, VT.

Yes, there is a Fairfield VT. YMM Fairview, VT (: Also, notice the very Californian reflector with the white background. Also, the square arrows aren't used anywhere I know of. Finally, VT license plates are green, and the one on the first car is white.

[froggie]

...which possibly could've be a New Hampshire plate if this were real.  New Hampshire plates are an off-shade white when blurry or from a distance.

[Henry]

All fake for the obvious reasons: there are no palm trees in Vermont, and the state route marker is totally wrong.

[CanesFan27]

This is about as close as you'll get to the sign in the commercial. 


IMG_0636 by Adam's Journey, on Flickr

[formulanone]

Heh...first posted this in the "Highways in Movies" thread, and my gut feeling was that even this was too much trouble for an ad campaign, but then again, shields are cheaper to manufacture and install rather than sending movie/filming equipment and personell on the other side of the country.

Debunked as fake, but that's the moving-pictures industry, isn't it?

[shadyjay]

^  and let's not get into a discussion about what's wrong with THAT sign!  


Every time I see that commercial, I keep on thinking of my state of residence.  But now seeing the large image and analyzing it, I can tell its not.  And there's not a single [permanent] traffic light on US 4 from Rutland east, through Woodstock, all the way into downtown White River Jct.

[US71]

Maybe the photo used is false, but I'm wondering if it might be a Photoshop of a couple different photos?

[Alps]

Maybe the photo used is false, but I'm wondering if it might be a Photoshop of a couple different photos?

No. Neither the 4 nor the 106 shield would be found in the state of Vermont to look like those atrocities.

[hbelkins]

This is about as close as you'll get to the sign in the commercial. 


IMG_0636 by Adam's Journey, on Flickr

When did you take that? I didn't see anything that looked remotely like that when I was there in November. That looks like what one would see driving US 4 west, which I did. I'd have been salivating had I seen that old assembly.

[Alps]

This is about as close as you'll get to the sign in the commercial. 


IMG_0636 by Adam's Journey, on Flickr

When did you take that? I didn't see anything that looked remotely like that when I was there in November. That looks like what one would see driving US 4 west, which I did. I'd have been salivating had I seen that old assembly.

Yeah, it got replaced last year I believe, or at most 2010. I have my own version of all the old signs in Woodstock, and they're gone WB. EB, there may be a straggler.

[Mergingtraffic]

plus the lighting on the sign seesm brigher than the rest of the photo.

Is could be fake, hey I know cooked food commercials that show the freshly baked food steaming is all faked.  It, in reality, is non cooked and and it's all done with lighting and computer efx.

[CanesFan27]

Well 1) salivating over a sign is pretty scary if you ask me. 2) Taken in May 2005. 3) Signs from what I understand are no longer there.

Woodstock is a pretty neat place to walk around.  I kept discovering new things every time I went through there.  Makes me nostalgic to get back and explore New England.

[empirestate]

Looks shopped to me. For one thing, the location of the bolts in the signs seems pretty unlikely...and the two arrow panels look to be the same one, with the one on the right digitally "distressed". That, plus everything generally looking like California, as others have pointed out.

[Brandon]

Looks shopped to me. For one thing, the location of the bolts in the signs seems pretty unlikely...and the two arrow panels look to be the same one, with the one on the right digitally "distressed". That, plus everything generally looking like California, as others have pointed out.

The signs themselves may be genuine, or very good copies.  As for the bolt locations, I would suspect cross members being used - check out the real assembly that CanesFan posted.  The bolts are in the same places.

[empirestate]

Looks shopped to me. For one thing, the location of the bolts in the signs seems pretty unlikely...and the two arrow panels look to be the same one, with the one on the right digitally "distressed". That, plus everything generally looking like California, as others have pointed out.

The signs themselves may be genuine, or very good copies.  As for the bolt locations, I would suspect cross members being used - check out the real assembly that CanesFan posted.  The bolts are in the same places.

Looks like in the original assembly, the bolts are vertically aligned between the shields and the arrows; in the fake version they're offset. I also don't buy the gap (or lack thereof) between the top of the shields and the green distance signs.

None of these details is complete proof, mind you, and of course I'm looking at this with an eye expecting it to be fake.

And again, the more I look at it the more I'm struck by the most obvious clue: that everything else in the photo is California!