Sometimes you need some extra cash...

If you frown upon the idea of our public space being sold to advertising, you’ll surely find this utterly disagreeable:
In times when the lack of regulation of the financial sector has arguably been the major catalyst of a global economic crisis which in turn has driven dramatic funding cuts in our public sector (education, health, welfare, local councils, etc.), it is precisely a high-interest loans company who sponsors London’s usual free-travel night on New Year’s Eve this year.
Transport for London and the Mayor of London must have agreed that there is nothing wrong with this.

This is London, I think containing a sigh, a city that sells its soul to the best bid.

__________
Wonga.com: Sometimes you need some extra cash...
Wood Green Station (LU)
London

"There is more to life than increasing its speed"

This poster is part of a wider project called ‘What is the city but the people?’ undertaken by Art on the Underground, the official arts program of London Underground, whose aim is to engage with the public by presenting contemporary art in the Tube.

The project ‘What is the city but the people?’ gravitated on a booklet of the same title compiling famous quotes; the title itself being a line from a Shakespearean tragedy.
The booklet was passed on to train drivers for them to read to customers through the trains’ PA system. The point being, I guess, to raise a smile and even some philosophical questions among the Tube’s passengers.

Pleasant as it is to be greeted by the Mahatma’s wisdom and encouraged to smile –and maybe to think too– for a purpose different of buying, the Tube’s sponsored art initiatives are inescapably that: sponsored. Thus, to some extent they are subject to London Underground’s agendas and will always work to create a positive view of the Tube amongst its customers; lo, the cause of marketing.

__________
Art on the Underground: "There is more to life than increasing its speed"
Wood Green Underground Station