The Yellow Pages Tube Train
The Yellow Pages Tube Train
The Yellow Pages Tube Train was introduced on 12th February 1998 and ran for a year on the Circle Line, in London, as one of the 47 trains in regular use on the Underground.


Photo from Buckinghamshire Railway Centre by kind permission of David Sexton.
| EXIT | The Tube Train | Painting the Town Yellow |

The Campaign

Since the early 1980s, the advertising agency, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, had created the ideas for most of the Yellow Pages ads, but the Tube Train project was also handled by Rufus Leonard. Paul van Berkel worked on the award-winning project for Rufus Leonard.

From 2007 Paul established DesignRebels.

The Tube Train
The Yellow Pages Tube Train The Yellow Pages Tube Train
Photos from Viacom Outdoor.

It took 125 square metres of material to cover all 192 seats on the train. The upholstery fabric was manufactured at an old 19th Century mill in Halifax. Each image on the outside of the train was made up of 4-12 panels. There were 564 panels used for all 18 images.

Viacom Outdoor (formerly TDI Media) was the specialist company who was responsible for selling advertising space on the Tube. The company is now part of CBS: see www.cbsoutdoor.co.uk/

Watch the Tube Train Video on YouTube. The backing music is Insomnia by Faithless (1996).


Watch YouTube vids at your own risk as the content of external sites may change without notice.
   
Realising the Vision

The large scale graphics needed to 'wrap a tube train' were produced by Imaginators. "Imaginators are specialists in superwide format graphics. With the power to offer high quality photo realistic images of up to 5 metres in width - and any length - rapidly and professionally."


Painting the Town Yellow
Yellow Pages Tube Map
The Tube Train project was a complete solution of promoting all of the Yellow Pages services in the capital city in a coordinated way, as this quote from yell dot com explains...

"The award winning Find Your London in Yellow Pages advertising campaign, including the fully branded Circle Line Yellow Pages Tube Train, ran for 12 months. The campaign also featured poster ads, tube maps and ticket wallets. Yellow Pages also began its sponsorship of the London Underground tube maps, which continues today. In addition, a national poster campaign featuring images on a yellow background, juxtaposed with classifications promoted Yellow Pages."



Scan: London Underground Tube Map featuring Yellow Pages wrap around.
   
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