please empty your brain below
If they brighten up the subterranean area then for me that is a good thing. They look nice and bright in your photos.
I have not seen double sided versions of these displays before so I shall go along and take a look at them.
Daylight viewing large screen displays seem to be improving technically all the time.
Are they still some tube stations that have projectors focused on a screen opposite the platform showing advertisement until a train arrives or has that publicity opportunity ended now?, I have not seen them lately.
I like the bright long screen that is above the entrance of several platforms at Waterloo.

John | 31.10.16 - 7:14 a.m. | #

this sort of advertising has been provided in mainline stations for years. Victoria has a large screen next to the departures board, and Liverpool St has three in the main concourse. They show mainly adverts, interspersed with news summaries, though that's mainly about show business and sport.
The screens at Canary Wharf are bigger, and possibly better if they include art, thought that does depend on the type of art chosen.
They do look obtrusive in Canary Wharf now, but commuters will probably get used to them. It's certainly better than increasing fares again.

amber | 31.10.16 - 7:17 a.m. | #

Thanks DG for drawing this brave new world of advertising-supported transport to our attention, in a well-expressed piece.

I don't like it. But then I don't like commercial television either, every time an ad comes on I want to switch channels.

But I recognise that the money brought in has transformed what is offered on TV. So is it possible to hope that the money from such big screens might transform our public transport? Well, we can hope...

Malcolm | 31.10.16 - 7:18 a.m. | #

My comment - just Urghhh!

Jo W | 31.10.16 - 7:22 a.m. | #

Malcolm "brave new world of advertising supported transport"
In my over 60 years of riding public transport in London there has always been paid for advertising. Inside train carriages, outside of buses and on station walls, so not really new. Just new technology to get the message across.

John | 31.10.16 - 7:27 a.m. | #

Awful, ruins the space, but not enough to keep me awake at night - there is probably a long German word for finding something awful, but that on a life the the universe and everything level doesn't even justify a 'Meh'.

Still anon | 31.10.16 - 7:34 a.m. | #

I do not care for this, and take the point about it spoiling the interesting internal space. Butt my response to all "in your face" advertising is the same: to ignore it, to simply look away.

At least this will only divert a viewers attention for 60 seconds or so; in carriage advertising (hair transplant anyone?) has you captive for a considerably longer time.

Frank F | 31.10.16 - 7:35 a.m. | #

dg says " Canary Wharf station has enjoyed 17 years as an architectural masterpiece, with a vast subterranean vista to take the breath away on entry".
I agree that compared to most of London's old "really ought to knock down and start again" tube stations Canary Wharf has more room, although it has never taken my breath away, (apart from draughts blowing through). Westminster station also is much roomier as are several other newer stations, and no doubt Londoners will enjoy spacious stations when Crossrail's Elizabeth line opens.
Lots of new spaces coming to put in even bigger screens! Great.

John | 31.10.16 - 7:38 a.m. | #


diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.10.16 - 7:50 a.m. | #

Perhaps they got the idea from terminal 5.
http://www.heathrow.com/company/partners-and-suppliers/advertising/terminal-5-towers

John | 31.10.16 - 7:51 a.m. | #

For visual intrusion nothing beats the all-over advertising (even the window glazing bars) on many of the Boris buses.

Gordon | 31.10.16 - 8:00 a.m. | #

As far as I know, all the projectors on the tube stations magically disappeared earlier this year.

Which isn't that surprising, as they were awful and pumped lots of heat out. (Mind you, LED screens like these run very hot too)

Kirk | 31.10.16 - 8:21 a.m. | #

I wonder what the advertisers think they are getting out of it. Can there be many people at Canary Wharf who have not heard of Lloyds, or Google, or HP, or Thomson Reuters?

Andrew | 31.10.16 - 8:28 a.m. | #

If they help keep fares low, I don't see the problem.

Michael | 31.10.16 - 8:53 a.m. | #


diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.10.16 - 9:00 a.m. | #

Look at these high adverts on the north circular. They are very distracting. I am sure they're not legal.

http://anastasiapollard.com/a406.jpg

Ann | Homepage | 31.10.16 - 9:15 a.m. | #

maybe they should be advertising the dangleway. it needs it.

wolf | 31.10.16 - 9:23 a.m. | #

"Canary Wharf's cathedral-like space" ... maybe the real cathedrals are missing a revenue-generating trick here

Caz | 31.10.16 - 9:33 a.m. | #

I do hope you're getting something from Llyods for that. :)

The only surprise is that tube stations haven't had this sort of thing all along.

Chz | 31.10.16 - 9:48 a.m. | #

Oh naughty, naughty DG. Laughs, anyway.

B | 31.10.16 - 9:57 a.m. | #

In a few years' time, London's biggest Electronic Billboard Managing Company, TfL, will be puzzled about why so many of its advertisement spaces have railways in the basement...

solar penguin | 31.10.16 - 10:09 a.m. | #


diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.10.16 - 10:11 a.m. | #

@still anon

How about Verschlimmbessern ?

http://de.bab.la/woerterbuch/deutsch-englisch/verschlimmbessern

IsarSteve | 31.10.16 - 11:02 a.m. | #

Oh, nicely done...

But I thought the screens switched between four adverts and two pieces of art, so can we have the other five panels?

the orange one | 31.10.16 - 11:11 a.m. | #

DG, the number of adverts is inadequate. We need at least two adverts between each comment. After all, if it keeps prices down, who cares about visual intrusion, right?

Andrew | 31.10.16 - 11:23 a.m. | #

Andrew, given that so many many people now days are have their eyes glued to there smart phones, I don't think that many would even notice. ;)

Michael | 31.10.16 - 12:10 p.m. | #

Reminds me of Bladerunner.

Uncle Audrey | 31.10.16 - 12:14 p.m. | #


diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.10.16 - 12:17 p.m. | #

I went for my influenza vaccination last week, and the space above the receptionists booth now has two large LCD screen, which in between announcing the next patient play adverts! Not that I remember what they were for.
Looking back to the days of variety and the music halls many theatres used to show adverts projected onto the safety curtain during the interval. Maybe some still do.
I had a nice part time job several years ago which entailed going to a multiplex cinema checking all screens (14 in my local) and writing down all the adverts shown. Then sending off a report. I could stay and watch the films too but normally did not bother.
Hopefully the adds keep ticket prices down. Now dg's add break next....

John | 31.10.16 - 12:23 p.m. | #

In Bangkok the screens on stations AND trains have sound too. Often loud. Ads are sequenced so what is playing on your train is also playing at the same time on the platform. It horrendous - and thankfully switched off during the current mourning period.

Ian Brooker | 31.10.16 - 12:24 p.m. | #

@the orange one
"so can we have the other five panels? "
One might conclude that DG is displaying that one because, as a taxpayer, he has a 0.0000001% stake in that company, but does not own shares in the other three.

timbo | 31.10.16 - 12:38 p.m. | #

Another example of the ever-growing scourge of modern life. Just because something is technically possible does not make it a good thing to have around, or be doing.

i suppose we shouldn't be surprised - TFL lost its soul some years ago and no longer has pride in its main raison d'être.

No one really gives a toss about the building or its users any more. Just look at what that shower from Manchester have done to Stansted Airport. Thin end of a very unpleasant wedge.

Do like the solar penguin's take on this.

peter cummings | 31.10.16 - 1:12 p.m. | #

Verschlimmbessern - might work for all those announcements about unattended bags, reporting suspicious stuff, not smoking, not committing suicide etc. etc., or most TfL inspired roadworks.

I can see many people applying it to their partners DIY attempts.

Still anon | 31.10.16 - 2:28 p.m. | #

Call me old fashioned but I am much more likely to look at the various advertising posters going up escalators than I am with the 'all showing the same thing' projections!

But then again I'm a book person rather than a Kindle one, and only got my first smart phone 8 months ago! :)

Cornish Cockney | 31.10.16 - 2:36 p.m. | #

Anyone got a catapault

Tones | 31.10.16 - 2:58 p.m. | #

This is what happens when politicians decide that public transport doesn't need proper funding. While LT and TfL have long had a balanced relationship with the advertising trade this is a step too far. Plastering the network with overly intrusive advertising and sponsorship is just ludicrous and actually risky. If the economy tanks then we've got to hope TfL have got watertight rights to advertising revenue or else there'll be a lot of blank spaces all over the network.

Classic way to spot the marketing trade is in dire straits - look for an increase in TfL filler posters on tube stn platforms. In the future it will be blank electronic billboards.

PC | 31.10.16 - 3:28 p.m. | #


diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.10.16 - 3:50 p.m. | #

But what's new - the Underground has always seen any surface as a potential advertising spot. Look at 19th century pictures of pictures of District Line stations.

timbo | 31.10.16 - 4:03 p.m. | #

Advertising has always been used as a means of contributing to the funds of public transport. Long ago it was said that the revenue from the adverts on the side of a bus would pay for the paint jobs needed over that bus's life. In the days that buses got repaints.
I remember the outrage in Sheffield at the time of the city's first tram system when it was proposed that the trams should carry adverts on the sides of the top deck instead of the city arms. A suitable compromise was reached and said adverts were tastefully hand painted.
"Newbould's Bread, Made in Sheffield" comes to mind.
I'm showing my age.

Baldrick | 31.10.16 - 4:11 p.m. | #

> "It's certainly better than increasing fares again."

> "If they help keep fares low, I don't see the problem."

Except fares are not low: they're exhorbitant and they WILL be increased relentlessly every year regardless.

Simon | 31.10.16 - 5:05 p.m. | #

I went through Canary Wharf this morning, first time in a while. Oooh, I thought, look, big screens just like DG said. Then, ooh, the adverts are on, that must be new, in DG's article the other day it was just art. And then I got back to thinking about work and not paying them any attention.

mighty mouse | 31.10.16 - 6:55 p.m. | #

@John - And now which adverts are played is happily pulled off the projectors instead.

I remember you lot coming round to check though.

Kirk | 31.10.16 - 7:17 p.m. | #

Good. Every little helps.



you can already see the impacts of frozen fares on bus tendering.

nameless | 31.10.16 - 7:48 p.m. | #

rude.

nameless | 31.10.16 - 10:57 p.m. | #

"Hello London"?

One is tempted to suggest a "Bog Off Parasites" counter-campaign. Or at least "Couldn't You At Least Be A Bit Less Aggressive About It". But inertia will out.

Autolycus | Homepage | 01.11.16 - 8:03 a.m. | #

One screen was already defective last night, pixilating and breaking up at the top edge of the eastern face!

Kim | 01.11.16 - 11:44 a.m. | #

The thing that's bugging me is. Nutmeg ad about salmon shows a London skyline and there's no point in London where you would see the landmarks in that order.

Uncle Audrey | 01.11.16 - 6:40 p.m. | #

How to destroy architecture and spatial harmony in one easy go. Never mind, in about 100 years time they will take them down, just as how the architecture of the Met/District stations between Notting Hill Gate and Euston Square were sensitively revealed after the blanket-coverage hoardings were removed. And they will marvel.

I thought the small screens down the escalators were a good development, but this is just greedy, overblown, and crass. Or Krass, as the Germans would say.

If they had even the most minuscule imagination, they could have wrapped the ovoid columns floor to ceiling in curved screenage, the effects of which would have been dramatic, suited the space, and generated interesting formats for the advertising and arty interludes. It just looks so thoughtless and dumb.

| 03.11.16 - 12:19 a.m. | #

"The screens are expected to generate more than £1.5m a year in revenues to reinvest in transport."

That's almost 3p per journey for every passenger passing through.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.11.16 - 3:35 p.m. | #











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