For years, I've been shouting (I believe that's the polite word) into the wind that we need to create a movement of transit supporters. It's only when riders who care passionately are recognized, thanked and recruited that true conversion really happens. Well here's a start from Montreal (Thank you for showing us the way). This beautiful little papermation video for Montreal's public transit system, the Société de Transport de Montréal is 1 part cheerleading, 1 part exhortation, 1 part acknowledgement, and all parts the joy of the journey. The video is supported by a series of graphic poster-style ads that make it an elegant, fun campaign. Well done Montréal!

Video made by Karim Zariffa, assisted by Pascal Brousseau for Sid Lee agency.
Photography by Simon Duhamel.

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2010.
Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.



Are Torontonians lucky to have the TTC? Or is it the other way around? In 2005, Spacing magazine introduced a series of buttons commemorating Toronto's subway lines - featuring tiles and type unique to each of the stations. Believe it or not, the TTC actually opted not to market these pins. The TTC's loss was the city's gain. Smart, hip and city-proud these buttons show Toronto at its best: in the hands of its citizens. Available at Swipe books.


I happened upon this ad for Minnesota's SouthWest Transit, just as the law in Ontario against handheld cellphone use kicks in. The timing is perfect and the advantage that transit offers the multitasking addict is driven home in busloads.

image via metro-magazine.com
Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009



From time to time Pushing Buses happens on a link or nugget of information or page that just happens to help us all push buses - or trains or LRT. This simple interactive page from the outstanding online mag GOOD, shows us the difference of between the impersonal car-centric streets of the past and the vibrant people-focused streets of the future. Every transit planning site should be able to illustrate the benefits of transit as effectively. This one really rocks my boat. Click here to get the full experience.


Image via visualizeus
Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009



In a campaign that builds off its first spot, posted earlier on Pushing buses here De Lijn continues to promote buses in Brussels as vehicles of social good.

It's turning out to be a light (no pun intended), likeable campaign which does more to increase ridership than most transit advertising I've seen in a long, long time.


Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009






Barrett and Welsh, submitted 5 entries in this year's Summit Creative Awards, an international award show that recognizes the creative work of small/independent agencies.

All five entries won.

Four of them (2 gold, 2 silver) were for York Region Transit's summer "dump the pump" campaign featured in an earlier posting on Pushing Buses - the winning entries are shown here again.

It's only possible to do good work when you have good clients and good suppliers.
To both, thank you.



C'mon folks. Admit you've been here. You've got the t-shirt.
Now ask yourself, on which side of the table were you?


Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009





"Sweet ride promised in $1.22B streetcars" says the Toronto Star.
"Bombardier wins massive Toronto streetcar contract" says the Globe and Mail.

Yes indeed, this is good news - good news for transit, for manufacturing in Ontario (the new cars will be made in Thunder Bay) and for Toronto.

Can transit be sexy? When it looks like this, it can be. (The livery shown in Bombardier's handout could use some design though).

The new streetcars are great example of what the "product" on the street needs to be, in order to steal the glamour that cars have always had in North America and to convert drivers to riders.

Bombardier's The Streetcar Redefined website does a pretty good job of showing off the Flexity streetcar in use around the world - but I think it could do a better job of showing the world exactly how sexy public transit can be.


Images made available for download by Bombardier.
Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009
Brands began as marks burned onto rumps of rawhide.
Many brands are still that today, and, often enough, even less than that:
just marks minus the life they were imprinted on.

The most successful brands step beyond the boundaries imposed by design.

Even in intellectual property law a brand is no longer just mark or a unit of design.

In fact, a brand is as much about a logo or mark, as a marriage is about a wedding.

Logos and weddings represent nothing more than beginnings.
Whereas brands and marriages represent the continuum. They represent relationship.

Today's brand, is exactly that: a relationship.
And all good relationships are built on communication.

The moment a brand leaves the chapel of design and crosses the threshold into communication,
it stops looking in the mirror and saying, "I, brand."

It instead begins looking at you, the consumer and says "Us, brand."


copyright 2006 Gavin Barrett All rights reserved



This is a good example of bad advertising that I recently stumbled on. (Tripped over?) What was OC Transpo thinking? A bad visual pun, a poorly executed ad. Tacky. Whoops - did I just say exactly what I felt? My wife would be so proud of me.


All works shown on this blog are the copyright of their respective copyright owners.
Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009


As a long-time poet and poetry promoter, I thought I'd use the excuse of April to nod at the odd appearance of buses and trains in verse. This excerpt of Philip Larkin's spectacular The Whitsun Weddings begins on board a train. Click on the title to go to read the entire poem at www.poetryfoundation.org.

The Whitsun Weddings

BY PHILIP LARKIN

That Whitsun, I was late getting away:
   Not till about
One-twenty on the sunlit Saturday
Did my three-quarters-empty train pull out,
All windows down, all cushions hot, all sense
Of being in a hurry gone. We ran
Behind the backs of houses, crossed a street
Of blinding windscreens, smelt the fish-dock; thence
The river’s level drifting breadth began,
Where sky and Lincolnshire and water meet.


Photograph of Philip Larkin outside the Hull University library via weblink from the Melville House Press website.

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009

Here's a spot from Brussels that pushes buses in a way designed to appeal to the social animal in all of us.

Advertising Agency: Duval Guillaume Brussels, Belgium
Creative Directors: Peter Ampe, Bottez Katrien
Creation: Hans Kerkhoff, Raoul Maris
TV Producers: Emily Rammant, Marc Van Buggenhout
Production Company: Creative Conspiracy
Director: Guionne Leroy
Producer: Luc Van Driessche

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009

Understand a fraction. Know zero. See India Reborn on CBC. Tonight at 8 pm and again at 9.



This hilarious ad (seen here in situ) from Dublin sells safety with a smile if the reaction of riders is anything to go by. Yay Dublin.


Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009





A couple of years ago we were handed a challenging assignment by Viva.
They wanted to make university students a core rider group, and make transit a behavioural choice for a new generation or riders. And oh, while doing that, they also wanted us to change the image of the bus as a loser cruiser.

No pressure, clearly.

Our single, unifying idea pivoted on transit’s promise of connectivity - its very reason for being. But we placed it in the context of the student’s world.

Viva connects you with the world you live in, we told them.
Yes, Viva gets you there on time, reliably, efficiently and comfortably.
Yes, riding Viva is good for the planet, but as importantly, when you ride Viva, you continue to make friends and meet people.

In a car you shut the door and cut yourself off.
On Viva, life goes on. Love goes on. Fun goes on.

The ads simply showed you how.

The campaign went on to win awards at transit and mainstream advertising award shows and was a huge success with students. We extended the campaign with an SMS marketing promotion in which students could win an iPod. If you'd like a case study with more details, write to me here.

Client:
Viva

Creative Directors:
Gavin Barrett, Mike Welsh

Art Director: Mike Welsh
Copywriter: Gavin Barrett

Photographer: Don Dixon


Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2008


Barrett and Welsh is heading out to San Francisco.

Gavin Barrett, Creative Director | Partner, Rao, Barrett and Welsh and Pushing Buses author, will be attending the APTA Marketing and Communications Workshop at the Hilton San Francisco Financial District.

We're looking forward to meeting the other APTA "Bus/CableCar/Train Pushers"!


Photo (c)Tomo.Yun http://www.yunphoto.net/en/

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009
All creative work shown is the property of its copyright owner(s) unless otherwise specified.

I'm proud to announce that Los Angeles Transportation Headlines, one of the world's most comprehensive aggregations of daily news on transit, transportation and urban planning, has included Pushing Buses in its Selected Blogs list.


Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009


This lenticular poster from Australia promoting safety around rail lines and rail crossings is a perfect match between idea and medium.

One second, there's nothing there. The next...

Now that's creative that hits you like a train.



Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009
All creative work shown is the property of its copyright owner(s).


This 1999 poster from the Underground's advertising archives shows that great brands weren't born yesterday.

An evocative precursor to the now well-established Making London Simple positioning, the poster makes the case for the Jubilee line with a single, intelligent sentence and great big serving of graphic wit.


Designed by Michael Johnson for the London Transport. From the collection of London Transport Museum.

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009
All creative work shown is the property of its copyright owner(s).


#3 in my series of Transit Logo Posters. This one's a collection of bus transit logos from around the world - and by no means is it the most comprehensive. As always, if you'd like a high resolution version (for free) write to me here.

Article, poster and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009
All logos and trademarks shown are the property of their owners.

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About the Bus Pusher

Gavin Barrett is Owner/Founding Partner + Creative Director, of award-winning Toronto agency Barrett and Welsh. In pursuit of big ideas he has: nibbled on pigs' ears (not on a live pig at the time); gone elephant-back in the Thai jungle (no elephants were hurt); gambled in a Macau casino (was utterly destroyed). His ads: have run in 35 countries, helped elect prime ministers, attracted the ire of the lawyers for Dolly the clone sheep, drawn an angry crowd in Lagos, have been studied in business texts in Canada and India and received derisive mention in a John Irving novel. His poems: can be found in Penguin’s anthology of 14 contemporary Indian poets, Reasons for Belonging. He cannot: sing.

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Barrett and Welsh is proud to support the cause of transit as contributor to CUTA and APTA

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We're not in the ad business. We're in the moving business. We move product. Perceptions. Behaviour. Market share. But most of all, we move people.

Pushing buses and other transit everywhere.

Pushing buses and other transit everywhere.
Barrett and Welsh is proud to support the cause of transit as contributor to APTA and CUTA.