On my way out of the city for Christmas, I had to take the Shuttle train to Times Square, and happened to get on one that had been taken over by American Airlines.
The exterior was pretty neat, made to look like an American Airlines plane…
But what really blew me away was the interior, which was covered in beautiful floor to ceiling images from countries around the world.
Seriously, best subway advertisement ever – I spent the whole ride immersed in the pictures, completely forgetting I was in a subway train. Below, two girls lean against the buildings of Prague:
Even the seats were changed! Here, a commuter sits on a pillared marble bench:
You can spend your trip admiring endless rolling fields (in lieu of stainless steel doors)…
…Or sitting in a field of flowers beside a pair of Swiss alphorn blowers:
Another set of benches put you in a garden, or outside a British telephone booth:
At the end of the car, the seats border on a stone wall in Edinburgh:
A commuter hangs out in Brussels:
Again – best subway advertisement ever, changing the bland, sterile modern subway car into a collage of pictures, with a minimal amount of actual ads. Wish I could have taken more pictures, but the car filled up as soon as it emptied. Check it out next time you’re in Times Square!
-SCOUT
I hope you put your seat-back and tray table in their upright position without having to be asked!
They do this frequently on the S. Look for the Holland tourism train in March or April. Last year it was amazing. Tulips & Dutch masters everywhere.
During the MLB playoffs they had game highlights showing on the tiny video screens, and the cars were fully Yankee’d up.
The shrink wrap ad treatment is more common than you may know/think.
Nice! I only take the ACBD or the 1, so I never see anything but garbage and spilled soda.
Great advertising for international travel, but we’d have to do it on a different airline. It’s too bad American Airlines is so terrible to fly with.
You mean they didn’t arrest you for taking pictures in the subway? I thought that was banned after 9/11. In fact, I know it was. Was that repealed? I hope so!
did you happened to be in the “Europe” car? and that add imply also an “Asia”, “America”, “Africa”,… ? or was it only to promote european destinations?
great trip anyway!
That is cool, but I have to admit my first thought was, you guys spend money on this and then charge us $25 for checked luggage? Something is wrong with this picture. But its still cool, and if it brings a smile or two to folk dealing with blizzard conditions, its all good.
I’m seriously impressed!
I don’t think this runs on the C or E lines…………
Actually a good use of advertising money.
Awesome photos. Those subway wraps can get pretty interesting.
As AVR noted above, the Holland Tourism Board also did a full interior and exterior wrap this spring. Here is a photo set: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=452561&id=406462895056. And then of course, there was Target’s first ever wrap of a full length train this summer: http://nyctheblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/target-and-mta-unveil-first-full-length.html
Too bad AA should had a flight attendat as well.
Anyone know is this is still up and running?
AA should be investing money on their service and replacing those crappy planes before wasting money on crap like this
Great idea!!I can’t wait to get to NY and get in this subway fantastic pictures.
It’s a nice effect, but I couldn’t ride in that train. Even the pictures make it look too busy. I’d get a headache riding in the midst of all that.
They change that train every month or so…right now it’s a jungle advertising a new show on abc called “Off the Map”. Always exciting to see what they’ll do next…
Wow. Maybe if the MTA lined up enough of these advertising deals they wouldn’t have to hike fares astronomically.
Holy Mother! You are the perfect person to board this train, you lucky duck, you.
I so wish I had seen this when I was in NYC. American Airlines is one of the best airlines flying — too bad some people don’t know that. The MTA should do this on all their cars!
Wow,that’s pretty cool!I hope chinese subway will change like that!(I’m a chinese)