Here’s my ridiculous, rushed attempt at recreating some iconic Breaking Bad imagery. How’d I do?
 |
| “Let’s cook!” —outside the Breaking Bad RV |
 |
| The classic image from the first episode of the series: Walter White in his tighty-whiteys. |
I didn’t have a lot of time to get it done, but—sometimes you just do things for a laugh.
Walt and Jesse’s first lab rolls through town
The highly-recognizable camper from the hit AMC television series Breaking Bad was appearing in various places around the city, as a promotional marketing push accompanying the release on DVD/Blu-Ray.
The tour is being touted on Facebook and Twitter as:
“Your chance to interact with the vehicle used as Walt and Jesse’s first lab and where the story began.”I saw a whole series of photographs of people posing around and inside the camper wearing yellow Haz-Mat suits. My immediate reaction as a fan of the show was, those shots aren’t authentic!
 |
| Oh dear. |
When Walt and Jesse cook in the camper during the first season, they’re basically only wearing green aprons and gas masks. Having the yellow suits around violates the continuity—which is important if you’re a true geek like yours truly. It’s just wrong.*
So I thought I’d do my own guerilla shoot, after discovering where the camper was appearing today. The result is as above.
 |
| “I just want you to know, no matter how it may look, I only had you in my heart.” |
Green shirt: check. Facial hair & glasses: check. [Dollar store] Gun: check. Tighty-whiteys and argyle socks: check!
Note to Sony overlords: the onsite staff explicitly told me that they “could not condone” the shot and they refused to assist me in any way (though they didn’t interfere, either). You could tell them they should’ve embraced the fan spirit and helped out!
It’s amusing that the subject material of the show is so incredibly graphic, yet when it comes to marketing, any hint of edginess is verboten. For heaven’s sake, you are pretending to cook meth inside the camper, as part of this promo campaign! A guy standing outside in his underwear isn’t going to get you fired. It’s a funny set of standards to uphold, don’t you think?
 |
| The yellow suits are fun, but... And nevermind the barrels. |
Thanks to random-passerby ‘Alex’ for taking the photos. Several people I asked were not comfortable—as soon as I mentioned I was going to remove my pants, they declined, duh—which I found unsurprising but still interesting from a cultural perspective. It’s just underwear, folks. But the schoolyard taboo remains strong.
If any photoshoppers out there want to help me make this a little more ludicrous with effects or messing around with the hues/saturation, please be my guest. It’s rather incongruous to have ‘Holt Renfrew’ in the background instead of the desert...
* In season 2 episodes 5 and 9 Walt and Jesse do wear pale grey zip up 'clean suits'. But the bright yellow suits are from season 3 episode 6 onward...