MARTA introduces in-tunnel advertising - Transit update - Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority - Brief Article

Railway Age, Nov, 2001

By renting out wall space inside their tunnels, subways may have found a lucrative new source of advertising revenue, reports Sign Builder Illustrated (SBI), a Simmons-Boardman magazine. The in-tunnel advertising is, in effect, "movie" where the viewers move and the images are fixed. An initial installation in a MARTA tunnel in Atlanta consists of 1,000 feet of light boxes carrying still images promoting a Coca-Cola Co. brand of bottled water. They're seen by subway riders at the rate of more than 200 frames per second.

SBI Associate Editor Tracy Wong describes the installation (done by Submedia of New York) as "an innovative advertising concept adapted from the old-fashioned flip-book, where the viewer thumbs through a series of still images on pages that, when seen in rapid succession, create the illusion of a moving image."

Similar in-tunnel ads have appeared recently on the PAtco line. A number of other North American systems are said to be taking a look at the opportunities presented by the concept.