{"id":17395,"date":"2011-01-25T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2011-01-25T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=17395"},"modified":"2011-01-25T17:49:35","modified_gmt":"2011-01-25T21:49:35","slug":"ttc-billboards-miss-the-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/01\/25\/ttc-billboards-miss-the-point\/","title":{"rendered":"TTC billboards miss the point"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Billboard<\/a><\/p>\n

Billboards promoting the TTC have appeared across Toronto over the last few weeks. These ads are exceptionally simple for outdoor copy: the simple black background, the TTC logo front and centre,\u00a0 make these advertisements more attractive than the typical outdoor display.<\/p>\n

But, unfortunately, I miss the point of these billboards, which have appeared before. Unlike most ad copy (with the notable exception of “teaser” ads), there’s no “reason why” to the ad. It does not promote any of the TTC’s inherent good qualities (environmental, economic or convenience) or represent any clever marketing campaign. All it indicates is that there is a website and a phone number if you were interested in learning more, if you actually recognized the logo (which to be fair, most of the ad’s audience would recognize). Yet the words “the better way” merely allude to what the advertised product is.<\/p>\n

Growing up in the 1980s, I remember decent TV commercials<\/a> promoting the TTC<\/a>, and clever Burma-Shave-esque ads over the Allen Road almost taunting the drivers waiting to clear the lights at Eglinton Avenue.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Today, the ads over the Allen Road<\/a> have the same pointless directions to the web, the phone, or the Yellow Pages, giving up the golden opportunity to market the ever-moving subway to the captive audience stuck in traffic. Indeed, the mere inclusion of the website and the phone number in these ads remind me of the pointless PR announcements in the subway telling riders to go look in the Yellow Pages or call the central line or (presumably go home and) visit the website if you wanted TTC maps and information. Meanwhile the collectors in the subway, where the ads are played, have all the maps and info one would need.<\/p>\n

But what leaves me even more nonplussed are some of the locations of these billboards. I have seen several outside the City of Toronto, but the one above was spotted in Downtown Georgetown<\/a>, where the only nearby transit is the GO bus and train, and is over 35 kilometres from the nearest TTC bus route, the 58A Malton, at Airport Road and Derry Road in Mississauga.<\/p>\n

Yes, as I failed to mention in the original post, the TTC gets the space for free\u00a0through an agreement with CBS\u00a0Outdoor, so there’s no direct “buy” cost.\u00a0But this is still a\u00a0shame, because the marketing budget or its ad agreements could be used in better ways than the use of\u00a0billboard space for these pointless advertisements in sometimes strange locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billboards promoting the TTC have appeared across Toronto over the last few weeks. These ads are exceptionally simple for outdoor copy: the simple black background, the TTC logo front and centre,\u00a0 make these advertisements more attractive than the typical outdoor display. But, unfortunately, I miss the point of these billboards, which have appeared before. UnlikeContinue reading “TTC billboards miss the point”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16934,4470,2896,79,19],"class_list":["post-17395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transit","tag-airport-road","tag-cbs","tag-georgetown","tag-mississauga","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTTC billboards miss the point - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/01\/25\/ttc-billboards-miss-the-point\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TTC billboards miss the point - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Billboards promoting the TTC have appeared across Toronto over the last few weeks. 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