Advertising

[trainman8119]

As I listen to the radio so much lately, it perturbs me to hear constant prime advertising for our so called cash strapped transit agencies. If these organizations are so poor, does anyone think that it is wrong to be paying top dollar to advertise special routes (Pace) or Christmas Gift 10-Ride passes (Metra) or any general advertising? Wouldn't this all be a way to slash expenses if this were eliminated ??

[Busjack]

I wondered about that going back to the RTA advertising in the 70s with "I get around" and rolling the slate blue destination sign on a pumpkin bus.

It would make sense only if the advertising resulted in making money. Maybe the marginal rider (in the economic sense*) results in net income. Maybe if newspaper stuffers similar to the ones sent out for route 272 were sent out for 616, maybe it would attract enough riders to keep it from being canceled. Similarly, I suppose that during the time it is supported by grants, Pace needs to do something to encourage ridership on the ?55s or once the grants run out, that's it.

But putting my marketing class instincts aside, I agree that I don't see the advertising being worth it. Generally, you either have to take the bus or don't. I commented earlier that I didn't see the point to the Stadium Expresses, if they have to be subsidized, unless there were an overwhelming congestion mitigation point to them. But then, the riders should be willing to pay a fare commensurate with the costs, except then somebody would bring up the FTA charter regs.

BTW one would think that the unions would save their money for a welfare fund rather than running ads for us to support raising our gas tax (at least according to the CTA Tattler, as I have quit reading newspapers on newsprint).

_____________________________________

* Most economic theory is based on marginal cost or marginal revenue, i.e. what the last unit would cost or generate. However, economics and transit have had nothing to do with each other for about 70 years in this area.