| Urinals, Trains, and Hot Air Balloons |

First Impressions (Advertising)

What does a bus stop, a bus, a building, a subway wall, a subway, a trolley, a train, a staircase, a wall under an over pass, the area above the urinal in a public restroom, and a hot air balloon all have in common? If you guessed areas to place advertising you would be correct. The city is littered with billboard type advertising. This would lead me to believe that in the case of Berlin, public displays play a large part when deciding how to reach the target audience in their advertisements.

Depending on the size a budget of the company one can make certain inferences on the cost of the placement of the advertising. For example, when riding the subway system you will see various advertisements for local events or places of business in stations that I assumed were less frequented. Traditionally, this advertising can be relatively effective and inexpensive for local businesses. And, the 4 story billboard on the wall of a building facing one of Berlins busiest train stations gives a slightly different impression. So we see the differentiation between the local advertising targeting the people of Berlin and broader bolder attempt to target everyone, including tourists. The almost illogical shift from German to English advertising helped me come to that conclusion.

German seems to be the dominant language in the advertising I first witnessed. However, after exiting a train station in Postdamer Platz, I came across an Oakley poster in a subway billboard that was entirely in English. This would normally not surprise me if the message was simple and easily comprehended however the poster was a part of a larger series of billboards leading to the stations exit that would have been to obscure for a novice English speaker.