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Why doesn't Amtrak promote advertising on there trains?

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  • Member since
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Why doesn't Amtrak promote advertising on there trains?
Posted by zkr123 on Monday, May 18, 2015 3:37 PM

Why doesn't Amtrak promote advertising on there equipment? A billboard on rails is an easy way for Amtrak to make money if they can get companies to advertise on the side of there trains. 

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Posted by Electroliner 1935 on Monday, May 18, 2015 7:04 PM

Please NO! Don't we prostitute enough scenery and other things with ads. 

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Posted by northeaster on Monday, May 18, 2015 7:47 PM

On a trip two weeks ago from Chicago to Minneapolis on the Empire Builder, each roomette had a copy of a very glossy magazine promoting the wonders of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado and especially the lovely ranches and mansions for $4 -$19 million dollars. What to my wondering eyes should appear but a full page ad for Amtrak's Empire Builder featuring fine dining, etc.  Makes a common fellow wonder why Amtrak would think this would be a potential passenger audience!! The advertising Amtrak does seems completly clueless, as if the "decision makers" who decide this things have never ridden on their own trains....another example of the detached nature of an outfit which resides in Washington, DC.

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Posted by NittanyLion on Monday, May 18, 2015 9:38 PM

northeaster

What to my wondering eyes should appear but a full page ad for Amtrak's Empire Builder featuring fine dining, etc.  Makes a common fellow wonder why Amtrak would think this would be a potential passenger audience!! 

When no one buys your ad space, you put ads for yourself.  That's why it is there.

DC Metro can't sell ad space on the subway very well either and as a result the #1 advertiser on Metro is Metro.

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Posted by northeaster on Saturday, May 23, 2015 6:52 PM

This was not an Amtrak publication...they paid for it, I would assume and got X copies to place in the Empire Builder.  The Amtrak magazine Arrive in an NEC thing which ignores the rest of the nation. Apparently Arrive is pitched to the Acela crowd.

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