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You may be feeling a bit sorry for yourself as it’s a Monday morning – but – come on<\/em> – things have got to be better than what this poor sod’s going through.<\/p>\n Forced to stand in an ludicrous costume in the middle of Oxford Street, this guy’s whole day is spent being laughed at and irritating passers by in a daft costume extolling the virtues of waxing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I have total sympathy for the guy – I once had a very similar job where I had to stand in front of a tube\u00a0station\u00a0exit at 7am in a gorilla outfit and hand out leaflets to unimpressed commuters.<\/p>\n People rushing into work hated me. Some called me names. Some pushed me about and quite rightly asked what I was doing looking like such a twat in a stupid outfit. Still, it could have been worse. At least I didn’t have to wear the banana\u00a0costume.<\/p>\n Sandwich board advertisers on the streets<\/strong><\/p>\n There’s actually a long history of ‘sandwich board’ advertising in London, and in Georgian times the streets would be full of\u00a0curiously\u00a0clad\u00a0folk\u00a0trying to catch the eye of\u00a0passers\u00a0by.<\/p>\n Here’s an\u00a0excerpt\u00a0from \u00a0London placard carriers and ‘sandwich men’, 1820 -1840<\/a><\/p>\n The novelty of placard carriers soon worn off, so advertisers were pressed to come up with new attention-grabbing ideas.<\/p>\n In 1826, the owners of the Weekly Chronicle decided that the simple process of multiplication would do the trick, and dispatched a mobile band followed by a legion of board carriers onto the streets of London.<\/p>\n The shuffling horde advertised a free gift of a print of the famous Nassau Balloon.<\/p>\n Scharf’s London street sketches showing sandwich men and human billboards<\/p>\n In their never-ending quest to capture the eye of passers-by, bigger and more bizarre displays were always being dreamt up.<\/p>\n Robert Warren of 30 Strand was particularly adventurous, coming up with a novel walking display of blacking tins (1830s).<\/p>\n …Scharf recorded a row of six blacking tins walking along The Strand, which must have made for an interesting sight.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"No](\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/worst-job-london-02.jpg\")
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