Crammed into subway cars with hundreds of other commuters during the morning rush, New Yorkers have cultivated all kinds of fantasies about what they would rather be doing — but acting on them is another matter.
Officials are axing advertisements that playfully urge subway riders to pretend they’re on vacation — showing cartoon figures fly-fishing on the tracks and lounging across subway seats.
The ads, part of a Bahamas ministry of tourism campaign, ”advocate behaviour that is clearly unsafe” and will be replaced, said Jodi Senese, a spokesperson for CBS Outdoor, the company that distributes advertising in New York’s underground.
Under the heading ”Instant Escape No. 2: How to Fly Fish with a Scarf and a Cellphone”, one ad seems to instruct riders to fish for trash on the tracks by putting something sticky on a cellphone and attaching it to a scarf.
Another sign in the series, ”How to Turn a Subway Seat into a Hammock”, shows a figure draped over several seats.
Track fishing and seat hogging are both forbidden by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s official rules.
Senese told The New York Times for Wednesday editions that the Bahamas campaign escaped her company’s notice because tourism ads do not usually require heavy scrutiny. The ads are plastered throughout as many as a quarter of the city’s 6 210 subway cars. — Sapa-AP