There is a trend that I've noticed whilst using the Underground in recent weeks that has set me thinking about the role of advertising as a means of controlling the public's sense of well-being.
If you look at the adverts on an average tube station, you will find among the film, beauty and lifestyle product advertisements that there is another kind of marketing device that appears a lot. Transport for London produces its own advertisements, some banal, and some more insidious. The banal messages often take the form of a picture of a rugby team, or a wizard, or a group of mime artists, recommending a course of action that improves peoples' usage of the tube by suggesting that they act in a curteous and orderly way when boarding the trains or waiting on the platforms. This is pretty obvious stuff, and might not be necessary if people were all equally polite (this is something I may return to in a future post).
The more insidious messages are those that present blanket, unqualified statements, presented in large fonts, unrelated to personal conduct on London transport. One of the most notable says "Buses are getting better". I find that sort of remark worrying. The transmission of the message is facilitated by the Mayor of London's huge publicity budget (I read recently that it's larger than that of Downing Street, but I haven't been able to substantiate that from searching the internet yet), but that budget comes, of course, from the taxpayer's pocket.
What this means is that we pay taxes to a body that pays for advertising to inform us that our lives are supposed to be improving in some nebulous, unquantified way. It implies that we wouldn't be able to notice for ourselves if our lives were improving (and perhaps this is the problem - we probably do know best). Therefore, our money is spent on telling us that we are happier now than we were in some past period, implied as being before we elected this mayor. If effective, this is cyclical - we believe our lives have improved in some way so we should re-elect the mayor who can successfully convince us (with the use of our own money) that we are happier. Very Orwellian, if you ask me.
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The fact that buses have got better with improved timings, services and reliability superseeds your argument. The other option we have is to let the Chairman of Jarvis who recently pleaded guilty in the high court to gross negligence in one of the UK's worst rail diasters. Norris also believes in cutting the congestion charge which 9 times out of 10 effects only the affluent surburban businessman driving regularly into London. The poster "buses are getting better" is a direct marketing programme to get people off the congested tube and onto the improved bus scheme making everyones life easier. I see no orwellian subliminal message. It's simply a case of advertising an option people were not aware of.
Reach around hump lurgy
Further to my above post, TFL adverts are so needed on the tube. How many times have you seen pregnant or elderley people being ignored by some sitting reading a newspaper? How many people get onto the tube prior to letting others get off? People are generally rude in their quest to get to that oh so important meeting. Even if these adverts are noticed by the very few, changing one persons behaviour on the tube is surely worthwhile.
The real offensive banality is the thousands of products littered accross tube stations selling a "get thin" lifestyle to young people.
The culture of private investment on the tube can only lead to the same situation we are faced with on the rail network. Passenger complaints at record highs, pre 193o's reliability records and health & safety lapses leading to the record number of deaths on the network since the second world war.
Agreed that Norris probably isn't a best-case-scenario as an alternative mayor, but the cycle of your own money being used to persuade you to vote for someone to be able to continue to spend your money still stands as a conundrum. I don't agree that it's been 'superseeded'. ;-)
As someone who has self-abused himself by the power of Atkins, I'm surprised to see you complaining about the advertising of a get-thin lifestyle!
Reach around hump lurgy
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