AMNY Subway Tracker

(via Deutsch Inc. advertising)

The city tomorrow will feel a little more natural...or a little more commercial, depending on who you ask. An advertising blitz will blanket the Shuttle station in Grand Central Terminal in posters for Westin Hotels and Resorts. The company bought out every single advertising space in the station and then some, including floors, columns and the sides of escalators. On Thursday morning, what the MTA calls station domination will be complete when the interior of one Shuttle train to Times Square will be covered, floor to ceiling, in nature landscapes. The ads will tell people, "This is how it should feel." While a public relations firm is calling the campaign unprecedented, MTA folks said other stations were similarly dominated. In 2004, the Times Square Shuttle terminal was blanketed by M&M advertising after the company launched train line M&Ms for the Subway Centennial. It's unclear how much the MTA will rake in during the blitz this time, but Westin paid $35 million total for ads in and below Grand Central, the Path trains and in Chicago.

You're always finding "big" publicity stunts at Grand Central. (See October's pumpkin.) Now you can add cheese to the list.

Although some of the specialty shops in Grand Central Terminal’s Grand Central Market carry nice size hunks of cheese (large enough to keep any commuter entertained on the train ride home), none of those hunks is actually the size of a man. Enter Beemster, the gourmet Dutch Cheese Company, and its six-foot wide wheel of cheese. All 1,300 pounds of this massive cheese wheel will be on display at Grand Central on Wednesday, May 16. Although commuters can’t actually sample the big cheese, Beemster will likely be handing out (significantly smaller) samples of its organic mustard and garlic cheeses.

-- Justin Rocket Silverman

Starting tomorrow 115 buses will feature big side and back advertisements to promote the 30th anniversary of the epic TV series Roots that will air on TVOne.

The ads will stay up for two months.

-- Chuck Bennett

Get ready for some “advertecture” at Grand Central. On Monday, the MTA will allow Bravo’s TV show “Top Design” to totally redecorate the 42nd Street shuttle platform.

MTA New York City Transit is working with Bravo in celebration of the premiere of the highly anticipated launch of the interior design competition reality series “Top Design” by allowing designer JONATHAN ADLER to transform the 42nd Street Shuttle platform into a series of interior design vignettes. ….

The newly designed and functional station set up will include plug-ins for iPods and cell phones, as well as a location for musicians who take part in the Music Under New York program, and will be open to the public through Tuesday, February 6.

UPDATE: Top Design's flack says Lee Sander will be there. Coincidentally, that will be the same time as the monthly NYC Transit Committee meeting at MTA HQ.

-- Chuck Bennett

Rape is never the usual advertising material. We're guessing these ads will get a bit of attention from riders.

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Desginer Milton Glaser (of I Love NY fame and a professor at the School of Visual Arts) is bringing these Sudan awareness ads to the subways.

"From now through February, 285 subway cars will be installed with placards that illustrate what it would be like to have no family members left alive," says school spoksman Michael Grant.

-- Chuck Bennett

Photo: iStock

Since when is 47th Street-50th Street Rockefeller Center the "Top of the Rock." Since conductors began to mention the observation deck after Tishman Speyer approached the MTA in a bid to tout the recently reopened facility atop 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The Daily News broke the story, reporting that Tishman wanted the station to be essentially rechristened, but MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow instead came up with a compromise: Have the conductors mention the observation deck.

And mention it they must. Says the News: The "Top of the Rock" directive, however, came as an official TA bulletin signed by the top subway manager, which conductors said was unprecedented. And supervisors have been posted on the Rockefeller Center station platforms for the last two days to enforce the order.

The whole thing strikes us as unseemly. The MTA argues that conductors sometimes point out worthy places to visit, but Top of Rock is hardly a civic institution like, say, any of New York's great museums. We'd rather the conductor tout the nearby MoMA than Top of the Rock, as much as we like the observation deck and are happy more of this important building is open to the public.

Here's a link to Gothamist's coverage, where an interesting conversation began on favorite subway conductors. Back in the early 1990s, our favorite was a fellow on the 1/9 who would share a tidbit of history about each stop.

-- Rolando Pujol

It's always fascinating to see what advertisers will do to get our attention in the subway. We couldn't miss these holographic frozen food ads plastered throughout the long 42nd Street tunnel that connects the ACE and 1,2,3, and 7 trains. (Full disclosure: the advertiser, Bertolli, has embarked on a massive media buy, including a wrap in amNY tomorrow.) Has anyone seen holographic subway ads before? If so, let us know in comments. And BTW, this tunnel is a favorite of advertisers looking to make a splash -- its walls were recently home to the controversial Jews for Jesus ads.

--Rolando Pujol

Photo by Jefferson Siegel

What's this? Simple defacement? Social commentary? A path in another direction? Funny?

Or as our photog says:

"Advertising begets advertising: a sign hung over the entrance to the uptown Broadway local at 23rd St. offers various emotional solutions."

UPDATE: 3:50 p.m. Above sign was removed sometime around 2 p.m. today.

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

Remember those racy Georgi Vodka ads last year that got pulled off MTA buses after too many people complained. Well, they’re back. And this time they’ll be on taxis. The official announcement is tomorrow.

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

TechWeb takes a look at the MTA’s new TransitTrax podcast program.

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

Ah, 1997, when people were still resisting the MetroCard and the MTA had to hire Mandy Patinkin to sell it. Props to the New York Observer Politicker for fishing up this MetroCard commercial on video treasure chest YouTube. Patinkin does the voiceover honors as he touts the cards against awe-inspiring city scenes. Gov. Pataki pops up at the end outside the Union Square Station. Ads in this series, the Politicker remind us, set off a political stir back in the day.

This isn't the first time YouTube delivered an MTA chestnut. Check out our post on the Train to the Plane -- and we don't mean the AirTrain.

-- Rolando Pujol

(Photo: An old-school MetroCard Blue)

Rockland to Manhattan: The great dream for commuters from Rockland County: A one-seat ride into Manhattan. One proposal would send a train over a new Tappan Zee Bridge, but it seems a ferry ride offers the most likely solution. [The Journal News]

Pedal at your risk: A month after the death of cyclist Derek Lake, StreetsBlog checks in on the Houston Street mess (and points out that the street is part of the still-unimplemented city master bike plan). [StreetsBlog]

Talk about valuable ad space: MTA gets serious about ads on the back of MetroCards. [The New York Post]

-- Rolando Pujol

Those MTA anti-vandalism ads prompted us at Tracker to do a double-take. Stand close to one and you see scratchitti on the big headlines. Our first thought was to savor the vandalization of an anti-vandalism ad. But on closer inspection, we saw the "vandalism" was the ad designer's very own.
And over at Gawker, there's talk about those ubiquitous ads from the School of Visual Arts that ask aspiring artists (and everyone else, really) "How bad do you want to be good?"  But just how good are the ads?

-- Rolando Pujol

When it rains, it floods: The Sun has a good look at the MTA's efforts to pump flood waters from the system. The problem never goes away, as these frazzled people at your left found out as they tried to squeeze into a packed F train at Roosevelt Avenue during an epic September 2004 flood.  [New York Sun via Gothamist]

Playing with fire (and water): He allegedly wanted to flood lower Manhattan by destroying tunnels below the Hudson. Now we learn the suspected tunnel bomb plotter also wanted to set California wildfires, according to federal officials. [AP via amNewYork]

Despair and delusion: Curbed has funny photos of signs from the future site of the Fulton Street transit hub. One tenant warns of the pending MTA doomsday, and the other, well, just take a look. [Curbed.com]

The blogging-tagging link: New York magazine's awesome graffiti article prompts thoughts on how blogging and graffiti cultures are similar. [ohword.com]  And more on the Brooklyn Museum graffiti show here and here.

-- Rolando Pujol

Photo: Jason DeCrow for Newsday

A rare sight in midtown, or anywhere really in the subway system: A corridor without ads. Spotted near the 34th Street and Seventh Avenue exit last week.

And at the same station, a sign signals the TA's effort to beat back the surge in graffiti. 

Just one stop uptown, ads for Jews for Jesus are causing a stir.

-- Rolando Pujol

If you were anywhere near a TV set in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s, then you remember (and perhaps recoil at the sound of) this jingle: Take the train to the plane!

That train was the JFK Express, the repurposed A train which ran from 1978 to 1990 and was a dud almost from the start. The big but hardly only fault: It didn't provide a one-seat ride to the airport. (You had to endure an arduous transfer to a free Port Authority bus at Howard Beach.) It did offer several perks, such as a comfortable ride, police on the train, and even on-board ticketing. But  by May 1989,  daily ridership was down to just 3,700 (each express used four cars), while an average A train could accommodate 2,000 passengers, Jim Dwyer pointed out that year.

So all these years later, here's a look at the commercials that tried and failed to sell New York on the merits of the JFK Express, but left NYC with --  love it or hate it -- a classic campaign. The first spot introducing the service is from 1978; the second is from 1980, and has a commuter taking a stab at singing the jingle. They surfaced on YouTube, from a poster called tvnewsman.

-- Rolando Pujol

Image from Wikipedia

WTC Work Halts: Just when things seemed to get rolling, work stops at the trade center site as a strike looms of  heavy equipment operators. Among the projects halted is the much-vaunted Santiago Calatrava transportation hub. [AP via amNY]

Tunnel TiVo Buster: A closer look at moving ads in subway tunnels -- in testing in NYC Transit and now a fact of life on PATH -- which are rapidly spreading around the world. [Reuters via Epoch Times]

Think Small: Is the Smart car the answer to finding parking anywhere, anytime in Gotham? Take it away, Dan Barry. [The New York Times]

Subway Smackdown: Shanghai vs. New York: Guess whose system  is cleaner (and guess whose will "actually get us where we wanted to go." [Shanghaiist]

-- Rolando Pujol

Subway ad creep has gotten tons of attention on this blog and elsewhere during the past week. The plans for ads on tunnel walls seem to represent the breaking point for some. The folks at blogNYC  have a suggestion for those of you who are fed up: Sign this petition.

To quote the petition:  "The subway is our one respite from the city that never sleeps. From being bombarded by a McDonald's on every block and a Starbucks between that. From ads on sides of buildings to the neon glow of Times Square.  We not only ask, we demand that you keep your ads off our tunnel walls."

-- Rolando Pujol

Looking to travel to Budapest? You needn't go any farther than your basic schlubby Times Square shuttle train. The cars have gone transatlantic -- thanks to Delta Airlines and some top-to-bottom interior design work. The normally silver walls have been wrapped in massive images of Budapest's historic buildings and street scenes. The usually yellow and orange seats are now blue.

And Delta's campaign to promote its foreign destinations doesn't stop in the cars. Straphangers stepping onto the Times Square platform are greeted with  tile walls plastered with ads. Even the columns get the colorful wrap treatment.

It's the latest such campaign to hit the shuttle trains. For instance, HBO brought the Old West to the cars with immersive "Deadwood" ads.

The whole notion of an advertiser buying out every advertising-sustaining inch may be the wave of the future. Single advertisers already routinely purchase every ad slot on trains, so extending that to the walls and seats all throughout the system's cars isn't unthinkable.

And what may be a boon to MTA finances is a loss to riders. One of the things that is so pleasurable about taking the subway is the motley jumble of ads competing for your gaze. A single advertiser, however cool and immersive the experience it provides, strips straphangers of one of the little joys of riding the subway. After all, it's hard to imagine Dr. Zizmor buying out a fleet of cars.

-- Rolando Pujol

An open letter sent today from Commercial Alert, a nonprofit opposed to run amuck “commercialism,” to MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow rails against plans for advertisements on subway tunnel walls.

“It might be one thing if the tunnel walls would be available to all of us, for civic causes as well as corporate ones. But that won’t be the case. Corporations would get to buy the space for their own purposes. Our role would be to submit and keep quiet. ...

“The subways do need revenue, so as former New Yorkers, we have a suggestion. Why doesn’t the MTA sell ad space on the suits of the MTA board members, from chairman on down? That way, when they move about town, they’ll be raising money for the trains -- in a way that leaves the riders alone.”

Not a bad idea. Seeing that Kalikow already has a collection of Ferraris and other racecars, its not hard to imagine him in full Nascar driver-style jump suit -- complete with colorful ads.

-- Chuck Bennett

Daily News did a “man on the platform” story and finds riders don’t care for more ads in the subway. Says one, “We have a lot of advertising down here already. It's overkill for sure.”

These “zoetrope” ads, though, aren’t such a cash cow. According to the Port Authority they generate about $100,000 a year.

Here are couple of the tunnel ads by Submedia that have appeared on the PATH and other transit lines. PATH has been running them since 2001, so the MTA is really behind  everyone else on this.

Download Dasani.mpg and Download Corvettecellphonelowresmov.wmv

Also, see record subway ridership in the papers today.

And more on the “Access to the Region’s Core” NJ to 34th Street tunnel — a $6 billion project.

Later today is the Straphangers Campaign "Shmutz" report on subway cars.

-- Chuck Bennett

Transport Workers Union Local 100 is gearing up for Lobby Day in Albany tomorrow.

Perhaps, they will urge union-friendly pols to endorse a bill by state Sen. Nicholas Spano (R-Westchester) and Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan) that will amend the Taylor Law and punish state agencies for bargaining in bad faith. The agency would have to pay 50% of any Taylor Law fines a union was hit with for striking, according to the NY Post.

Also, see the Posts editorial blasting — obviously — the law. 

Meanwhile, the Post also reports the transit union  keeps going after so-called “scabs” during the strike. But, the guys hit with union penalties claim they picketed with everyone else.

And Fred Dicker reports that MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow could endorse Hillary Clinton for re-election. I don’t know how many votes he commands — he’s not too popular with his transit workers now — but his money couldn’t hurt.

The Daily News has an interesting piece on new subway ads on the way. Apparently advertising execs want to paint the tunnels with images that will appear like a “silent movie” through the window as the train barrels through.

As long as there is no annoying sound to go along with it, why not?

The article also said it has been tried on the PATH trains. Anyone ever see it?

-- Chuck Bennett

Transit cops are serious about preventing the rash of iPod thefts on the subway from driving up their low crime statistics. Last summer cops blamed iPod bandits for a spike in crime.

There are new NYPD ads in the subway reading “Earphones are a give away. Protect your device” accompanied with a drawing of a good old-fashioned earphone set not the white iPod ear buds.

In 2005 there were 1,097 robberies in the subway, up from 1,083 in 2004. But still a lot better than 1997 when there were 2,216 robberies and average of 17 felonies committed a day.

CLARIFICATION: A reader -- and then my amNY co-workers -- pointed out that a lot of those signs have been around for a while.

-- Chuck Bennett

Subway ads written in Spanish certainly aren’t unheard of. Indeed, many tout schools that teach English to recent immigrants or advise passengers to report anything suspicious. But it’s not every day that you see an ad written almost entirely in Spanish coming from a major corporation.

To wit, here’s this Burger King ad spotted aboard a No. 7 train. It’s for BK’s new Angus cheese bacon steak burger. It reads: “Nada Hace Que Te ‘Sientes’ Mejor.” That means roughly “Nothing Makes You ‘Feel’ Better.” It seems to be a play on words in Spanish,  conveying the idea of "feeling well" and also "sitting well" ... as the reader would be doing on a subway seat.

Is this a fluke ad that’s part of a single advertiser’s transit campaign? Or will subway ads become more polyglot as advertisers strive to reach increasingly diverse audiences?

-- Rolando Pujol