“have I just been missing these or are branded metro cars a new thing?”

85°

Partly Cloudy

by Prince Of Petworth — June 3, 2016 at 4:13 pm 16 Comments

metro

Thanks to Adam for sending. What other advertisers have you seen?

bll

i haven’t seen them in person, but I love how the ones I’ve seen online are all for food, specifically fast food.
RandomReply

Years ago, maybe 2005, I saw one in a tunnel. It played out like a short video. I’d love to see more of those in the tunnel system. God knows, WMATA could use the ad money.
- textdoc
  
  Yeah — I think for a while they had ads on the walls between Gallery Place and Metro Center. They were done in such a way that when the train went through, they “played” like a movie to people inside the train.
  .
  I think wrapped trains are relatively new. I don’t remember seeing any until this year.
  - Truxton Thomas
    
    Yes, I remember one for Nestle Quik a few years ago. The little bunny bounced around as you passed through the tunnel. It took me by complete surprise.
  - stacksp
    
    +1
    
    Been done before numerous times and typically during the summer to impress the tourists lol. The movies in the tunnels were kinda dope back in the day.
  - textdoc
    
    I rarely had occasion to be on the Red Line between those two stations, so I think I saw only one such “movie.”
  - Reality
    
    Yes, I remember Nesquik too!
- MtP
  
  I forgot about these! I think I saw them in 2009 or so, but it might have been on a trip to DC before I moved here. I agree, why not get as much money as you can. I say plaster the system with ads to help fund it, who cares.
- west_egg
  
  Article on those, which also mentions the car wraps: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040401183.html
General Grant Circle

In my whole life of living in DC I have never actually seen one in person…
Reality

A few years ago I saw one for one of the local stations, ABC, NBC, CBS… something like that.
Jerry Grundle

Yes, to echo what others have said, you’d occasionally see wrapped trains years ago, but it has never been an especially common practice.
above7-11

I think Uber should start running ads on the metro. 20 minutes until the next train arrives?
DRC

Honestly, why the hell doesn’t the metro sell more ads? The trains/metro in Japan were covered in ads. I hear every day how much metro sucks and needs money to fix so many things, but they are missing out on a huge amount of advertising revenue. They plaster stuff all over the busses, why not the trains as well?? Get a huge deal together with an ad company and sell every last inch of space inside the trains, outside the trains, in the tunnels, in the stations, etc.
meh

These have always been available but as any marketing person in the city will tell you, it is not cheap to wrap a metro car/bus/etc. Prices run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and you must agree to purchase a certain lower limit as well. I’m guessing that’s why seeing them is so rare unless it’s (like in this case) a major corporation doing the advertising.
OUTFRONT Media USA

Yes, Wrapped Rail Cars are back in Washington, DC! McDonalds was the first advertiser posted this year, look out for the next wrapped campaign at the end of June.

Subscribe to our mailing list