Thursday, September 14, 2006

don't hold others back

... is the theme of a totally insane advertising campaign running on tv and on public transport at the moment. Cunningly night-of-the-living-dead-ish the images might be (slovenly zombie people draped on decent citizens trying to get places or get on with their jobs; I notice that however eerily and deadenedly draped the holdbackers are, the male ones don't connect crotchwise with their hosts, just in case you think it's an ad decrying dry humping) there is one little problem with it. WHAT THE HELL IS IT ABOUT?! Is it, as I suspect, an ad trying to tell people not to hold the doors open on trains so other people can get on? Is it, as I suspect, an ad attempting to suggest that the reason so many trains are late is that selfish citizenry are preventing them from running on time? If it is, then it's probably sensible to make it so obtuse, as the message is completely ludicrous - if anyone came out and said this was the reason the trains are late all the time, they'd be laughed out of court (or wherever they were when they said it).

While I'm at it, can I please get a punch or two in on the 'fare evaders' ad campaign. This at least says what it's meant to say - that fare evaders are 'supported' by other passengers. Of course, it's not true and if it was, can we please have a scaled ticket system where the more tickets are bought, the cheaper each individual ticket becomes? The new smart card system could easily calculate this and give us a refund every day, based on how many fares were paid for.

These campaigns are, however, unmitigated bullshit (well, I say that about the 'don't hold others...' but I actually don't know what it's for - perhaps I actually agree with it). (No, I looked at the website, and I was right about what it was about, and I don't). Talk about ingenuous. I propose a new ad campaign blaming commuters for the indicators and train announcements on the trains themselves being wrong half the time.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's so bad it's not even laughable and that's what irks me. I've actually become very angry.

David Nichols said...

You? Angry? Topsy turvy world

Anonymous said...

Calm down both of you.

Fare-paying passengers subsidise fare evaders in the sense that they have to tolerate the robbery of $50 million each year from the public transport system - money which could be spent improving services.

20% of delays on the train system are caused by passengers.

David Nichols said...

'Robbery' in the sense that I am worth more than I earn, so I am 'robbed' of the difference between what I am paid and what I should be paid - EVERY DAY!!! That's money that could be spent on (a) improving services (b) books about dianetics (c) vials of fantasy.

If this hypothetical $50 million was delivered into the public transport system's varied coffers, there is no guarantee it would be spent improving services, in fact I think we can pretty much be certain it would not. Since the trains run (so to speak) whether that $50 million comes in or not, I am not sure how it even qualifies as robbery.

And as for that 20% of delays caused by passengers - bullshit!

David Nichols said...

And by the way, the $50 million loss could have been alleviated a little by refraining from spending millions on meaningless advertising campaigns. There's some money that could have been spent on improving services. But wasn't.

Anonymous said...

Does four squat thrusts and starts singing the neutron dance

David Nichols said...

Is that similar to the safety dance?

Anonymous said...

perhaps holding people back could also be linked to global warming

the early 70s was all juxtaposition

October 1970, everyone had their arms out in the air, from Barbra to, um, whoever that is on the left, to Thumbelina. This is from the Sprin...