An advertisement poster that is currently shown in London underground trains contains an encrypted message. It is not very hard to solve.

Advertisement campaigns that include encrypted messages have a long tradition. For instance, the following poster that advertises a New York shoe store stems from the 19th century (I blogged about it in 2014):

Shoe-Advertisement-1

This cryptogram can be solved by laying the counterpart depicted in the following advertisement on top of it (in 2014, blog reader Armin Krauß was the first one who found out how it works):

Shoe-Advertisement-2

The cleartext is the following:

TELL YOUR PARENTS
THAT SHOES WITH THE
A.S.T.C.O.
BLACK TIP
UPON THEM ARE THE
PROPER THING
FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN.
NEAT & DURABLE.

CSO-advertisement

 

The Daily Telegraph advertisement

Believe it or not, the following picture (published in the Daily Telegraph in 1909) advertises a product, too:

BN-1909-08-12-Daily-Telegraph-Puzzle

The solution is described in a blog post I published in 2014.

 

Ovaltine

The most popular advertisement campaign that involved encrypted messages was that of the milk flavoring powder Ovaltine (known to Europeans as Ovomaltine). The producer of Ovaltine placed its first crypto commercials in 1934 in the radio show Little Orphan Annie. From 1941 on, a certain Captain Midnight promoted Ovaltine and provided encrypted messages to his listeners and spectators, as can be seen in the following commercial spot:

The producer of Ovaltine created several toy cipher devices (e.g. a decoder ring), which are today popular collectables.

 

The Jack Ryan cryptogram

George Lasry, who is known to readers of this blog as a great codebreaker, recently sent me a picture of another encrypted message that is a part of an advertisement poster. Here it is:

Jack-Ryan-Cryptogram

George saw this poster in a London underground train. On the poster it says: “By the next stop, can you crack the code?”. Apparently, this motive was designed especially for the underground.

Can you solve this message? It is not very difficult. I am sure that George Lasry found the solution before he reached his destination.

The product that is marketed here is an upcoming US web television series titled Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. This action thriller series is based on the fictional character Jack Ryan, which appears in many of the novels written by bestseller author Tom Clancy.

If you see other Jack Ryan posters bearing an encrypted message or if you see the poster introduced in this article somewhere else, please let me know.


Further reading: Trump committee resigns and hides message in letter of resignation

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Kommentare (6)

  1. #1 Thomas
    14. August 2018

    Yes? Then welcome aboard.

  2. #2 Breaker
    14. August 2018

    Take the sign and break the parts down. Numerical message is not the only one there. Numbers are meant to represent the look of IP addresses as well symbolically…..looking for a website to find a part to connect to this message..

    Words are chosen and positioned to bring about a secondary message when laid in grids. Usually this reveals a single message and a pattern of pairs to be counted for the next layouts…so when the TT, CC, OO is found then there is a 6 space grid chosen for the next stop

    Rotate the box one way or the other and relay it into the boxes and read like a book….

    BYTHEN
    EXTSTO
    PCANYO
    UCRACK
    THECOD
    E

    So many interesting things found from this method.

    Leads to a name Ed Koons (@FidoSysop) on Twitter….

    Dude’s page ( ‘Dog Psyop’ or ‘Fds ISIS Op’) has a numerical template there, and Trump is busy calling Omarosa a Dog on Twitter, so all these things have some meaning IMO

    First rotation and realignment

    ETUPE
    BHCCX
    YERAT
    TCANS
    HOCYT
    EDKOON

    CCX TRANS is the suspect phrase here….these are train companies in America….the message initially posted on a train rail line, and reading “YES? THEN WELCOME ABOARD” is a sign as well something being plotted….

  3. #3 Breaker
    14. August 2018

    They are asking for acknowledgement of the code from the CRU…..?

    BY TEXT, NOTE, CAN YOU OP CRU ACK THE CODE?

    This is prolly some media collusion with the CIA communicating plans to the FBI ?

    Weird hidden words

  4. #4 Klaus Schmeh
    14. August 2018

    Michael Schroeder via Facebook:
    Wow! That was a toughie.

  5. #5 Richard SantaColoma
    https://proto57.wordpress.com/
    15. August 2018

    “Yes? Then you can read.”

  6. #6 Klaus Schmeh
    15. August 2018

    Joe McNicholas via Facebook:
    Yes? then welcome aboard