Alcohol advertising on U.S. transit systems
The industry watchdog Alcohol Justice (www.alcoholjustice.org) last year updated an earlier study that surveyed the alcohol advertising policies of 32 major metropolitan transit agencies, and city departments that control transit advertising, in the U.S. Some findings:
— Eighteen agencies explicitly ban alcohol advertising in agency policy, contract requirements, government policy, or a combination of these.
— Fourteen agencies including New York, Chicago and Atlanta allow alcohol advertising.
— Model alcohol ad bans have been adopted by transit systems in Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia.
— Most major cities allow alcohol advertising on transit-related street furniture, even those with transit policies banning alcohol ads.
— Despite claims of economic necessity, revenue from alcohol ads account for less than 1 percent of the reporting agencies’ annual operating revenues.
MARTA advertising revenue
Atlanta’s transit agency recently embarked on a pilot program that would display for the first time alcohol ads on buses and trains and at bus shelters. The following figures look at total advertising sales, and the alcohol ad portion of those sales, for January-August 2014 (alcohol advertising started in April):
Trains and buses
Total ad sales: $3,116,091
Alcohol ad sales: $152,927
Bus shelters
Total ad sales $2,202,134
Alcohol ad sales: $249,049
Total
Total ad sales (all modes): $5,318,225
Alcohol ad sales: $401,976
