It's called "station domination"--the practice of renting every available surface in one of downtown San Francisco's underground BART stations to a single advertiser. Results have been mixed; I remember entering one station a couple of years ago during the famous Dove Intensive Firming Cream campaign and being surrounded by images of beaming, near-naked, cellulite-free giantesses. Unsettling, it was.
This week, though, the Montgomery Street BART station is dominated by Perrier, the century-old mineral water company that last made significant waves here in the 1980s. Last October the company launched a fizzy new ad campaign that has finally gone subterranean. The copy tweaks the famous Perrier logo and name by substituting English-language adjectives: crazier, flirtier, sassier. It's clever enough on paper, but look at how effective it is on these signs:
That's "Easier" over the escalator, "Speedier" over the stairs.
While you're waiting for your train, you can enjoy the childlike line drawings and verbal humor of the wall posters:
Update via MJF: With BART trains in parlous condition, maybe Perrier should add a sign that reads "Filthier."
For those of you of a certain age, the Perrier ads may recall a long-running print ad campaign for Napier costume jewelry. That campaign also played bilingual games with the -ier suffix, as in a 1974 ad currently for sale on eBay:
Other headlines read "Napier Is Sexier," "Napier Is Earthier," and so on. In this case, the word play was a pronunciation guide, telling us to say NAY-pee-ur. I'm not certain Perrier actually wants us to say man-lee-AY, but maybe we can start something.
