Parisians frown at 'singing' billboards
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PARIS (Reuters) -- Dozens of advertising boards in Paris's metro stations are singing cheerful slogans this week, but the noisy ads are not music to the ears of many commuters.
Marzuki Samur, a shoemaker, frowned as he walked past an ad at the Opera station in central Paris and a voice began chanting the name of the stereo company Aiwa like an aria.
"That's rubbish," the 45-year-old commuter said, looking at the cartoon character on the billboard from which the sound emerged. "There's already too much noise in the subway."
From some 150 billboards put up by Sony Corp.'s Aiwa, hidden voices sing out in country, boy band and rap styles.
"This is the first time we have sound ads on the metro. It's meant to surprise people," said Franck Fiess at Metrobus, the department which organizes subway advertisements.
"The screens are placed in tunnels between tracks. People can walk by, they are not forced to stop. In a closed space, such as in a train, the noise might be more annoying," he said, adding the campaign was a week-long one-time event.
"I like the song. It's nice," commuter Habiba Rebbache said.
But in Paris, where advertisements in the metro are often destroyed or smeared over with anti-capitalism slogans, advertising critics say the campaign is a poor way to lure consumers.
"The music is very soft and discreet, so it's not very aggressive. But this shows the actual strategy -- one could almost say these are subliminal messages," Yvan Gradis from anti-advertising group RAP told Le Parisien daily.
Saxophonist Daud Stelian, who has played in Paris subway tunnels for over a year, said he feared for his business.
"We could lose some of our audience. The chanting billboards distract people from us musicians," he said. "Paris is a very cultural city, and we get lots of nice comment on our music from travelers. But the singing ads just don't fit in."
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Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
