Copywriting goes Underground

June 21, 2005 5:17 AM

The London Underground is home to some of the most interesting, weird and fun adverts, which have been tailored to the fact that they have huge posters that passengers are often looking at for minutes at a time while waiting. In Copywriting goes Underground, they challenged ad agencies to write an ad which had at least 50 words in it. Some are crap, but some are pretty innovative - check them out.
posted by adrianhon (15 comments total)

and some are PDFs too :(
posted by the cuban at 5:24 AM on June 21, 2005

Yeah, most of them are PDFs unfortunately.
posted by adrianhon at 5:26 AM on June 21, 2005

Worst of all - all of them are ADS.

Thanks, but I'd rather read - oh, absolutely anything else.
posted by MaxVonCretin at 5:34 AM on June 21, 2005

..often looking at for minutes at a time while waiting.

minutes? adrianhon, you're obviously not travelling on the northern line.
posted by three blind mice at 5:39 AM on June 21, 2005

I didn't come to London to get religious. No, I came here to work in the sweat shops of Soho making chicken fried rice. But godamm it if I ain't going to go ahead and get me some religion anyway, thanks to this weird poster.


I saw that poster last week in the Tube. It's actually quite interesting to read, while you're waiting for the train to come and looking for something to do with your eyes that doesn't invade anyone else's personal space or hostile little sense of normalcy. So I applaud the makers of this poster.
posted by snoktruix at 5:42 AM on June 21, 2005

Some are crap, but some are pretty innovative

Which are which?

Not to be gratuitously snarky or anything, but... little help?I clicked on a few at random and was bored out of my skull. I believe there are interesting ones, but I'm not gonna click my way through the whole page.
posted by soyjoy at 9:12 AM on June 21, 2005

I have to admit that while waiting for a Piccadilly line train last month, I was impressed by this unorthodox ad for The Economist.
posted by flaneur at 9:17 AM on June 21, 2005

My kind of post adrianhon. I dig it. Bummer about them being .pdf's though.
posted by dabitch at 9:40 AM on June 21, 2005

Oh, and flaneur, that economist poster is brill.
posted by dabitch at 9:41 AM on June 21, 2005

For metro adverts, these are rather interesting. (The ones here in Toronto are uniformly, relentlessly uninteresting - movie posters and un-subtle large print - maybe because most of the adverts are placed between the rails ten feet (or so) from the platform?) From the Penguin advert: "Quality writing became avaialable for the price of a packet of cigarettes." From the transit polis ad: "Lose yourself and you could lose your wallet." Interesting stuff, adrianhon.
posted by philfromhavelock at 9:44 AM on June 21, 2005

Thanks, but I'd rather read - oh, absolutely anything else.

We're not stopping you. Please feel free to go read absolutely anything else.
posted by Down10 at 12:12 PM on June 21, 2005

This one is pretty funny. I had no idea they even sold toothpaste in Britain.
posted by greasepig at 12:16 PM on June 21, 2005

I remember being over in London in early '98 and seeing the ads for "Jesus Christ Superstar" in the underground. They were black and white "action" shots of Jesus being led by police through thick crowds of fans and paparazzi. Very cool.
posted by mzanatta at 12:53 PM on June 21, 2005

I think the NFL should adopt this ad campaign in the US. : )
posted by SisterHavana at 1:27 PM on June 21, 2005

Agreed Down10:

> Thanks, but I'd rather read - oh, absolutely anything else.

Then only a relative couple of the billions of web pages that you could read are sullied with this kind of thing. Try one of those (and better still - try not to post to it).
posted by catchmurray at 5:23 AM on June 22, 2005