Advertisements, Cities, Subways
New York is one of my favorite cities. Probably my favorite, along with Tokyo. I took this from a rooftop bar in NY - it’s free to go up, haha.
New York is bringing video advertisements to its subway system. Well, they are bringing it to promote the MLB in a couple of cars, with no word on whether they are going to be expanding.
The New York Times: M.T.A. Brings TVs to the Subway
The first comment that I saw under this article is:
It is a DISGRACE, do we realize that OUR collective air-space and peace is being sold to the highest bidders by our authorities? Do I like to get in a taxi to be bombarded with advertisements without even asking? My daughter suffers from motion sickness, she gets sick the moment she sees the TV on in a moving vehicle. And now the subways? Where does it stop? - jma
UMMMMM… really now? You don’t like advertisements - and why are you in New York? What in the world do you do when you read a magazine… they don’t ask you if you want to see the advertisements! And I hope you don’t watch any TV… Stupid. Well I guess she has a semi-point, but the comment just sounds stupid.
Anyways, aside from that, I don’t know how well a TV in the New York subway would go, but other cities that I have visited have implemented them quiet nicely. And let’s be realistic - money is a huge issue!
Hong Kong:
They had a unique system on their train from the airport to the city. Some cars had TVs with sound, and some cars had TVs with no sound. Then again, the airport train had seats like a high speed rail or airplane, not like a subway.
The first photo I took in HK!
Tokyo:
TVs in its subways and the trains, most consistently on the Yamanote Line that circles Tokyo. But then again it’s Tokyo. They have advertisements on the hand rails of escalators. And you never have to buy pocket tissue in Tokyo because they hand them out literally every street corner with advertisements. But it all works. The consumer market there is so hard to crack you have to do your best, and that means getting the word out. Normally they have silent commercials with captions, some funny English lessons from Berlitz, and of course station information (which is nice).
I took this on a train. Forgot what line - but you can see the TV screens in the background.
Los Angeles:
Some public buses of LA Metro also have TVs, and these show advertisements and also a moving map. But then… most of the time the TVs are either 1. broken or 2. scratched up so you can barely see anything. And the advertisements are either in Spanish or are just cheaply made awful crap. But that’s because no one of socio-economic importance bothers to ride the bus. People see the bus, so companies pay for bus decals on the outside. Inside, advertisement is totally catered towards a different crowd.
And I’m sure other major cities around the world have advertisements. I didn’t see them in the London Tube, or Paris Metro, maybe on the Vancouver subway (actually maybe not)… I know Berlin has them. Taipei didn’t have them. Prague didn’t have them, neither did the Dublin light rail… or Amsterdam… nor did Brussels… I dunno, maybe most cities don’t! But the examples I’ve seen are not at all obtrusive, I thought.
Especially in the New York subway, I don’t think TVs would be ruining the system. The “TVs” are more like small screens, and they tend to be pretty inconspicuous. These negative reactions make it seem like the subway is gonna go all Minority Report status and install huge holographic projectors. Jeezus. And everyone needs money right now.
I actually do like advertisements sometimes in cities - they really add local (or globalized) flavor to the city. Who doesn’t love traveling and taking photos of weird foreign advertisements?! Haha.
But yeah, advertisements needs to be in appropriate areas. The subway is definitely appropriate - in New York, people do NOT ride the subway expecting it to be a quiet, gentle ride. Just my 3 day vacation there, so much weird shit happened on that subway system.
Peace.
