Ads on the Underground

I’m not sure if you noticed but the tube is filled with advertising… it’s completed lined with posters about any old crap and a lot of new interesting stuff as well…

I caught the tube from Angel. Walking through the turnstile I headed for the escalator. I immediately noticed the mini-posters lining the side wall. I counted 44 posters on the one side and a matching 44 posters for passengers heading in the opposite direction. The escalator was also the slowest I’ve ever been on, so you’re really forced to notice the array of colours and eye-catching words and images flashing before you.

I thought that was it but when I came to the bottom I was faced with 16 bigger posters on my side of the walkway and another 16 on the opposite side. Then came the second escalator with another 21 mini-posters on either side. At the foot of the escalator I saw another 8 large posters.

Walking onto the spacious platform at Angel was quite a relief until I noticed a massive ad on the wall above the tracks and began to count… approximately 40 large posters dotted along the platform walls and in the side passages. Now that’s insane!

Hopping off the tube at London Bridge I was expecting the worst but was pleasantly surprised to notice modern TV screens lining the escalator walls, showing video adverts – all 43 of them on my side alone. Based on the reactions of people on both stations, it seems the video ads are more of a hit as you find yourself watching the same set of ads all the way up the escalator. The printed versions just get a bit irritating, which you soon realise as you see the monster-sized posters at the top of the London Bridge escalator.

I then added everything up and realised that if I travel that portion of the Northern line frequently, I would be exposed to over 340 adverts on each round trip, without taking into account the ads on board the tube. That’s astonishing… but how many of them can I actually remember? Maybe one? Sure… but which one?