Airlines and transit agencies such as Metro are struggling to make ends meet. Yes, their budgets are based on different assumptions but in each case the amount of revenue or funding coming in isn't enough. The high price of fuel has recently made things worse. One of the solutions is to increase the amount of advertising revenue that can be obtained by making more and more space available for those hoping to reach the passengers. Airlines for example have a very desirable audience in that they carry those who are traveling on vacation and therefore seem to have disposable income or those who are traveling on business and can potentially be making buying decisions for their companies on a number of levels. On transit systems the advantage to advertisers is that they can reach the same audience with their message over and over again as passengers take the same route ten or more times a week. The need to raise additional revenue has gotten so bad that even the Ride-On bus system in Montgomery County, Maryland caved in and ended its ban on slapping ads to the sides of its buses. Of course, in this economic climate, many of the ads now on the sides of Ride-On buses are those trying to solicit advertisers to buy space.
Airlines are considering selling space on the sides of planes although that would seem to reach a rather limited audience. They are also considering things like slapping ads on the sides of carry-on bins, onto the napkins that come with soft drinks and cocktails and even onto the backs of seats utilizing those little cloth or paper doily things. In short, anything that can have a logo or slogan stamped onto it is fair game.
I am not a big fan of advertising... I was very unhappy when the American Movie Classics channel on cable began chopping up perfectly good flicks in order to sell advertising time. They always seem to cut into the movies at the worst time. There's nothing worse than watching a key scene in Cool Hand Luke that ends up like this: (Strother Martin): "What we have here is a failure to..." (Ad for erectile disfunction drug): "Call your doctor if the effects last longer than four hours."
At the same time I guess I would rather be subjected to a few unwanted ads than to have to dig into my wallet for more money. If Metro can figure out a way to get advertisers to pay for some of the infrastructure improvements that are necessary instead of raising fares then I would have to support it. Please, though, find some companies other than those selling software to the government or adult education classes at local colleges/universities. How about some video ads for vacation packages to Aruba or the Cayman Islands?
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Metro is rolling out--literally--new buses this coming Monday, the 27th. The red and silver buses will include 60-foot long articulated or accordion buses and will be used on the U8 line, which runs from the Capitol Heights Metrorail station in Prince George's County, Md., to Benning Heights in Southeast Washington. In the first week of November the system will begin testing a couple compressed natural gas (CNG) buses on the 5A route that runs from the L'Enfant Plaza rail station to Dulles Airport. The thing that really impresses me is that the CNG buses can carry as many as 103 passengers, including passengers who stand. There is nothing like seeing shiny new transit buses out on the roads to make you feel like things are good and right in this crazy world.Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter,
observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation
issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com.
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