Not that this is the most egregious possible example, and subway ads are certainly nothing new, but whoever the revenue entrepreneur at L.A.’s Union Station is has been on quite a roll of late. Most recently unveiled is the “Bodog” mixed fighting championship campaign which basically took over the entire entry and platform to the Red Line, i.e. the main subway node (which, granted, isn’t saying much in L.A.). A huge vinyl covers the floor in the entry, as well as several billboard-sized wall mountings further in the entry, capped off with a vinyl wrap around every one of the supporting column/pillars down in the platform area.

As you can probably imagine, the top (I’m assuming) Bodog mixed fighting championship contenders aren’t the prettiest faces around to say the least, and the ad is a huge up-close face-on portrait of each contender. I wasn’t looking forward to having to endure these gruesome heads on a bi-daily basis (in multiple no less), but it hasn’t bothered me as much as I thought it would. In fact there’s almost something primal and cathartic about descending into the cavernous underground space in the heart of L.A. and being confronted by the bigger-than-life, jabba-the-hut-caliber ugliness of these visages, only to then walk right over them, your foot fitting surprisingly well in a roundhouse-contorted nostril as you pass.

This is on the heels of a whopper of a Dos Equis ad that was put up way back at World Cup time (and still there), which covers basically the entire tunnel leading from one end of Union Station to the other. This was kind of shocking at first, Union Station being a tourist-level architectural attraction in L.A. and all. In retrospect, it seems surprising that prior to this, the considerable interior square-footage of the central hub of commuter travel in L.A. was basically blank, which I guess speaks more to advertisers’ estimations of the reach and frequency rates of would-be adspace there…

As a vaguely-related postscript, here’s a view from the 16th floor at my office, in which if you look closely, you can spot off in the smoggy distance a HUMONGOUS ad for what appears to be in my best estimation the newest Will Ferrell vehicle. I believe this month’s installment has him as an ice skater.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 at 8:33 pm and is filed under advertising, distractions, fantasy, humor, marketing, portraits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.