Above is the link to the two new CSX commercials, “tracks” & “Enviro Brackets”
A bunch of my friends and I were watching history channel and “Enviro Brackets” showed up. Towards the end we see the double-stack train rolling. There were about five of us and most were pretty confused and were not aware that the railroads hauled those containers or trailers for that matter. I mean they have seen the boxcar commercials before and are fully aware that railroads are fuel efficient and everything, but they new boxcar method was very time consuming. So they were kind of surprised that railroads hauled intermodal loads and were not aware of it. I explained to them how they are different in operations and they never new of such a concept.
Ironically, the same situation happened before when I was watching CNN with a friend at a restaurant one time. It was that older CSX ad, when they zoom in on that one container in traffic and then they zoom back out but the container is on a train instead of a truck now.
I tell these stories, because I know people think the railroads do not need to advertise. It seems this in not entirely true. My friends seemed to be more supportive of freight rail investments when they found out that there were these kind of trains and actually understand what the whole 280+ trucks off the highway is all about. They really seemed surprised that they haul semi-trailers as well and was wondering how long that was going on, and why they would even do that.
Apparently, people really do not understand how railroads operate anymore.
One possible weakness of the CSX ads is that they are too low-key, you don’t know whose ad it is until the final five seconds. Burlington Northern’s ads in the late 70’s-early 80’s (they even ran on NFL games) showed the BN name a bit more prominently.
Don’t forget the Norfolk Southern ads with the ‘lonesome gas can’ . I always thought they were pretty well done, as well. Union Pacific used to run some brief ads around the times of the major evening news shows, but have not seen one of them in quite some time. They would have some nice material to build on, particularly around the 2010Boy Scout Honor locomative and certaiinly, the Susan G. Koman Bre*st Cancer Honor 7400 would make some interesting ads for UP.
And then there’s the commercial for UPS that show all sorts of transportation modes–everything execpt railroads. Is UPS embarrassed that they use trains, or are trains so synonymous with slow-speed that UPS doesn’t want to show them?
Not CSX of course, but NS recently posted this video to their YouTube channel about the making of one of their new commercials. I found it particularly interesting as I’m into film as well as railroads.
UPS operates its own trucks and airplanes, I’ve seen a number of widebodies with a brown fin. On the other hand, UPS does not operate its own trains, they are just a customer of the railroad.
On this date carries a story that UPRR will be launching a National media Campaign advertising their abilities in transportation logistics.
Just my opinoin but, ity looks like the public media ad campaigns of their compeditors NS and CSX must be viewed as effective and meeting Corporate goals. There have been rumbling in the past that it did no goodto have the railraods advertise out side of specific transportation venues.
Possibly the industry is beginning to recognize the value that the UP has garnered by its very public expositions of its Steam Heritage and Historical Heritage Fleets, Not to also mention it’s special; Honorarium Locomotives 4141,2010,7400…
Now UPRR will join the CSX and NS in going out into more non industry expositions of advertising their Corporate Expertise, and building positive images for their companies*.*
All I can say is its about time. I mean the industry seems to been out of the public image for so long and really need to get the message out about who they are and what they do.
I agree, I think it’s a great PR move by all the class 1’s. Educating the public on what they do and getting their name out there should be a priority as they have these idiot “Not In My Back Yard” bozos trying to give the R/R’s such a black eye. Recently, I have seen nothing but a positive impact in regards to the relationship between the R/R industry and the communities they operate through. Long gone are the days of “we were here first” or " we don’t need the public’s support" attitude by the big 4. I applaud NS and CSX for leading the way.
I assume you are talking about the UPS “logistics” commercial. I think the image of a UPS trailer on a train is not included because in the public mind a shipment using the railroad will arrive when it arrives rather than on a precisely scheduled timetable. Logistics is the art of getting something somewhere just before it is needed and in the public perception that excludes trains. That the puiblic perception may be at odds with the reality could be an issue for railroad advertising but not for UPS.
I was browsing channels this morning and as I passed CNBC I saw an ad for UP. It basically said
“Ship door to door and on time with UP” for all your needs. Maybe (at least UP seems to be) RRs are trying to promote regular service.