Immersion advertising. →[More:]

There seems to be a hot new trend in NYC advertising. My daily commute includes a trip home on the Times Square shuttle from Grand Central, and the ads on the train go beyond flyers, or posters, or even billboards. In fact, entire subway cars have now become rolling ads. Walls, ceiling, seats, you name it. The first one I saw made you feel like you were part of a theatre audience, which was kind of cool, since we were, in fact, sitting down (when it wasn't too crowded); I forget what the ad was for, though. The latest consists of streaks of blue reminiscent of the ocean, with a surfer gliding down one wall. Again, everything is blue (an ad for this, as I recall). It makes you feel a bit like you're drowning, or on a submarine, but, all in all, not too bad.

I draw the line, however, at the Cottonelle ad. I remember registering the signage immediately, but it was a week or two before I realized that the walls of the subway car themselves were, in fact, rippled like Cottonelle. Part of a theatre audience, fine. Bobbing in the ocean, okay. But clinging to toilet paper walls like a bunch of straphanger dingleberries is just too much.

I'm waiting to see what they do with the buses.