Patrick Morin and partner Fred Johnson have founded Freight Train Media LLC, with the idea that freight cars could be the next great advertising medium. “You can just imagine what kind of impact messages might have,” Morin told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “You’re waiting at a rail crossing, and they’re rolling by, 100 cars with these colorful images on their sides.” Morin told the Plain Dealer he foresees brand advertising, Nike swooshes, Coke logos, Chevy, the Cleveland Indians, State Farm Insurance, and on and on. Morin and Johnson came up with the idea in 2005 during a discussion of railroad car history.
However, there is one problem: The Association of American Railroads Rule 84, which bans billboards on railroad cars. The rule came about because of logistics. For example, companies and union workers hated it when a car with a Swift & Co. ad would show up at an Armour meat-packing plant for loading. The AAR created Rule 84 to prevent customers from getting upset because of the ads on the cars.
“It’s not a law,” Morin said. “It’s a rule.” He told the Plain Dealer he thinks if he shows the AAR that what happened years ago to upset shippers won’t happen today, the group will abolish the rule. Freight Train Media recently made a deal with the Florida East Coast Railway to allow two cars to carry plastic panels advertising the Florida Marlins baseball team. As it happens, a Marlins pitcher, Dontrelle Willis, bears the nickname “D-Train,” a great fit with the ad campaign.
The cars carry printed plastic panels. On one, D-Train appears amid outsized text that screams, “You gotta be here!” while another features slugger Hanley Ramirez. Some text is in Spanish to reach the large Spanish speaking population in Florida. So far, the Marlins say the response has been pretty favorable. At the end of the baseball season, it will assess the campaign and decide whether to continue next year.
Morin says he will wait out the test runs in Florida and AAR action on Rule 84 before pushing hard to sign up national advertisers. But he and Johnson clearly envision long-term success with their vision of multiple rolling ads.
However, not every advertising professional likes freight train media. David Gianatasio, who writes for AdFreak, the daily Internet blog of industry trade magazine AdWeek, put up a blog in March ridiculing the concept, the Plain Dealer reported. “Who is the target audience?” he asked. “People stuck in cars at railroad crossings, shaking their fists in anger as the train thunders past? Or those jittery souls whose homes and businesses abut the tracks?” Both, he suggested, might be “fairly unreceptive.” Tim Nudd, who runs AdFreak, echoed those sentiments. Considering miles of freight cars emblazoned with ads, he said, “I find it hard to believe that my life would be improved to see endless Reebok ads flash past.” Nudd called the net effect “more ad clutter.”
Morin’s plan includes putting ads on coal cars that get loaded at the mine, don’t linger in yards where they might be “tagged” with graffiti and unload at securely guarded power plants. Ultimately, if railroaders could keep graffiti artists away, its possible 1.3 million freight cars could carry advertising images.
Freight Train Media has also agreed to give part of the proceeds of every freight train ad to Operation Lifesaver, which promotes safety at crossings. More safety awareness could reduce grade crossing accidents. The two Florida Marlins cars wear OLS lettering and slogans.
For rail photographers, feelings over the ads are mixed. On the one hand they would add color to freight train consists. But others don’t care for the ads. One said, “If this doesn’t give you a reason to put your camera away and never take another picture of a train, I don’t know what will.”
