A couple of days ago I entered the Rio metro and my world turned pink. The inside and outside walls were completely covered with posters advertising hair products for women. Or, perhaps they were advertising the upcoming soap opera.. those seem to be interchangeable normally so sometimes I get confused. As I was riding to work inside the Barbie house, I started to reflect upon how metro advertising and commercialization evolved in the short time I have been here. Normally, the billboards inside are quite small and advertise hair straightening creams, dietary supplements or numerous English schools but recently they started to use the entire trains to advertise various events, like the Rio+20 or the Olympics on a massive scale. Then, banks started realizing where most of their consumers pass every day and ATMs started popping out inside the stations. First it was just Santander, but once in a while, a new bank would add its own machine. So now there is normally a row of at least 4 different bank ATMs at every corner of the station to the point that it seems almost a security risk to be inside.
I also started noticing small kiosks that began to spring out inside the terminal, selling very random things such as funny doormats and hand creams or perfumes (perhaps to help oneself after a sweaty ride). Finally, the food industry came through when Bob’s (the local and much more popular version of McDonald’s) started setting up ice cream booths in the station hallways. I am wondering what’s going to come up next…
If I had to generalize what are the most advertised topics, I would select the following: hair products, education options (English classes + MBA in <enter any random discipline>), TV shows and perhaps mobile phones .
As far as I remember, in NYC those were: alcoholic beverages, TV shows and lawyers for various petty issues or work accidents.
Anyone has any interesting lists from where you are?
Grobetrotter 