In the 1920s, Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote a sonnet in which she imagined learning of her lover's sudden death while riding the subway. But there is more than first meets the eye. Placards about poor language skills, complexions, or credit share car space with glossy campaigns for such high-end brands as Kenneth Cole and Coach. The history of transit advertising began in 1870, with enterprising horse car drivers looking for additional revenue, and continued when the subway system began in 1904. The subway facility became uniquely qualified as an advertising facility because of frequency.
Frequency is something advertisers care about.
Some 3 million people ride the trains each day, and subway advertisers use the discomfort of the daily commute to their advantage. Understand that people in a subway facility don't want to make eye contact with other people. And there's very little to look at besides the advertising. Many subway ads are single posters with rudimentary graphics, often crammed with type. There's what we call a brand train, which is when an advertiser buys an entire side of a car and can use it as a mural format if you will.