The scene with the CRT and Nokia are during the review of his past. One can assume they were chosen to help drive that point home for anyone who’d missed the narrator’s dialog.
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Taken out of context, you would be correct.
In context, however, where the narrator continues with, “…to stand, with the world at your feet”, and the contentious phrase is clearly a forward reference, then it makes perfect sense.
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Perhaps a middle manager, but definitely not from Des Monies. The dream home of such a person would be a McMansion in a suburb – lots of space, a huge lawn, but miles from anything remotely interesting. In America, pretty much only East Coasters get the attraction of living in an apartment in a city where you can walk to bars, restaurants, and grocery stores.
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Looks a bit like the apartment my employer stuck us in for a month when we relocated.
I don’t know why people like apartment living though - I was going nuts wanting a bit more space immediately. The city is filling up with the goddamn things though. Our neighbourhood is being overrun with outsized condo buildings that will have deserted retail spaces on the ground floor.
Not really getting an American Psycho vibe from this (needs more naked Christian Bale running around with a chainsaw for that), more UK Apprentice with Alan Sugar.
I like this typo 
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… and we’re the prey.
They’re advertising to people who think of themselves as above us and as predators, and we know they think of us as prey.
Point 1: I am autistic and know I can’t read facial expressions, but everything just looks predatory, and I think that’s what they’re going for. Point 2: I have known people who were sociopathic and were not predatory like that.
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I get a sense that the company this guy works for is the nascent Weyland-Yutani.
(Or better, that that’s the company he would un-ironically like it to be.)
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I haven’t seen American Pyscho and I still did find this ad creepy – because that style of music paired with video with that kind of lighting and color is usually intended to communicate creepiness, or at least darkness. It is odd that this is NOT apparently what the intended message is. I don’t find the content (work hard, make sacrifices, climb to reach your goals) inherently creepy though I will say I do not share the particular goal of living in a London high rise by way of success as a business underling. And I do mean underling. The sense I get is success via sacrifice to a big machine of a business. Though having to work your ass off in a ‘up or out’ work environment is realistic, it is not aspirational.
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Did that apartment also come with a dead hooker? Apparently that’s the latest in amenities for dead-eyed bankers…
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Think different what?
Jesus! I was waiting for it to be a parody ad from somewhere like College Humor or The Onion … >.<
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Having read the underlying piece, I think the takeaway is that Central London is awful and so are the suburbs. I trust the author of the pieces has identified a narrow habitable zone where his specific notion of decent life might thrive.
I look forward to a Drake’s Equation that identifies those few spaces in the western world where just the right people, with just the right level of social consciousness, and just the right level of cosmopolitianism thrives with just the right coffee shops at just the right distance.
It’s a special kind of suburb. Zone 4. I imagine the American equivalent would be a McMansion estate.
Also, special thanks for the oozing condescension.
I’m going with “the oozing condescension belt”.
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No, even the midwesterners are getting into the bro-condo (fka bachelor pad) spirit these days. Minus the access to public transportation.
Case in point: Dollar Store Ryan Gosling and his Uptown Minneapolis glass box.
Think pink.
this is aimed squarley at the mainland chinese market. it sends the message that most people can’t have this, but you can conquer london with ease - and dosh.
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Black Mirror?
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Well, maybe not creepy, but repulsive. I haven’t seen American Psycho, either, and all I could think while watching that was please, please, please let’s not revisit the 80s again so soon.
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Wow. The whole thing felt like I was watching a trailer for the main character’s life in <A HREF=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_%28film%29Ink.
Nice place. With a view like that, and a directional antenna on a tripod, you can wardrive the city without leaving your couch.
…that leads me to a thought. Rent such place, find enough unsecured networks from the right demographics, passively listen, get enough insider info to trade your way up, then buy a place somewhere cozy. It’s a wonder what all you can get with merely a 17dBi Yagi at 2.45GHz wifi in a non-selected-demographics city (don’t ask how I know); it can be only better with a higher-end gear with more protocols and better antennas in a banker-heavy area.
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