Television Advertising in Metro Stations
Sometime last year, there was a large uproar in Washington, D.C. over WMATA's discussions around adding "television" advertising in the stations and trains. People in D.C. were up in arms about the idea of their daily commute being interfered with by advertising. And, given that I've heard nothing about this idea in a while, I'm assuming WMATA has given up and started looking elsewhere for funding.
The idea seems to be nothing new, however. Pictured at right is a gigantic screen from a Vienna metro station which broadcast a combination of news and advertisments. Platforms in Barcelona, Spain have small television monitors displaying news and ads directly behind the train arrival screen, and some of Berlin's S-Bahn trains even have monitors in the train cars.
Originally, I was worried that the advertisements would become too intrusive. But given WMATA's complete lack of funds and the low likelihood of more funding becoming available from the local governments, this now strikes me as a way to bring money into the system that would not be too intrusive. None of the screens I saw had audio, only video, so it would not distract people who want to use their commute to read, write, or sleep. And at least it will provide for more stupid lawsuits about what can and can't be advertised on trains.
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amg | 11:20 AM |
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Berlin's S-Bahn trains even have monitors in the train cars. Yeah, I noticed this when I was in Berlin. But they also showed some short films as well. One was a play on the German silent "Nosferatu." In the short the woman convinces the vampire to play chess, which lasts until morning when she pulls the drapery and kills the vampire. So I didn't mind the video at all (I think the rest of the content was largely news).
I noticed that news and ads were playing at non-obnoxious volume in some of the Amsterdam streetcars.
