Bring Back the Subway Burner!

You may remember Os Gemeos from the work they did in NYC last summer-- particularly their signage in Coney Island and colorful pieces all around Williamsburg. Today, WoosterCollective pointed out an amazing commuter train the twins hit in Brazil. It got us thinking-- if the MTA allows companies to wrap an entire bus in advertising, maybe they should allow artists to decorate specific train cars. It doesn't even have to be in paint-- they could use the same plastic wrap the buses use. We're not arguing for a return to the subway graffiti of the 1980s-- but how cool would it be to see a car like the ones above rolling in to your local station like they did in May? The program could be subsidized by wrapping a few trains in advertising-- which would be cool in its own way-- imagine an entire train wrapped in Red Bull ads! Frankly, it seems strange that the MTA hasn't tried a wrapped train already.

Semi-related: did you know there are more than 20 elevated portions of subway track in NYC? It's true!

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By Jake Dobkin in News on January 6, 2006 10:50 AM

Comments [rss]

ken little

"graffiti is tedious and boring."

that's need to be said for a long time. thank you snore.

Toby

You really want to put corporate graffitti, I mean ads, on the outside of subway cars?

We are attacked by too many ads as it is. We don't need more.

Art yes, ads no.

snore

graffiti is tedious and boring. thanks for listening, i've wanted to get that off my chest like, forever

Cole

The MTA hasn't wrapped the outside of trains (Chicago and DC have, though), but they have been doing a lot of interior wrapping on the 42nd Street Shuttle lately (track 1 train only)--first it was Eddie Bauer, then the Times Theater section. Both were really cool, spiffed up the inside of the train a lot, and must have required a ton of planning and design work.

NYCinephile

Jake's proposal reminded me of the Braniff creative campaign from long ago....

http://www.braniffinternational.org/people/girlwhopainted.htm

ML

Back in late '96/early '97 I was at an ad agency, and we were working with an outdoor media company that had been negotiating with the MTA to wrap a few trains. We actually had templates, designed the ads, and built mock-ups, but never were able to get approval. The media company was very enthusiastic, but there wasn't a lot of serious interest at the MTA, and it was "further studied" to death. I believe NY1 was at a public meeting where our designs were shown, and aired about 15 seconds the next morning.

Kevin Walsh

The problem with wrapped bus or train ads is that the process makes it impossible to look out the windows. You get this honeycomb effect. Tagging a subway car also renders the windows opaque.

So if you're gonna do it, avoid the windows.

www.forgotten-ny.com

EM

Chicago has done advertising wrapping on the "L" trains. I remember Old Navy and Altoids, in particular.

MT

That's a pretty timely commentary. Did you see the article in yesterday's Times talking about the MTA wrapping those pillars in the Times Square station with advertising? They mentioned that the MTA won't wrap cars in advertising like they do buses. It was actually a pretty interesting looking into the mind of the MTA. Definitely check it out.