I've got the (Outdoor) Power

The other day... Whilst sitting on the hammersmith and city line, moving at snail speed from central east to west London, I tried a little experiment out of sheer boredom. I closed my eyes and decided to count how much media exposure is around me for the passengers sitting around within a 10m distance. After opening my eyes I saw the baseball cap teenager opposite playing on his iPhone, the businessman reading the Metro, the tube walls covered with advertising for vitamins and Olympic travel, the woman next to me reading a magazine with a huge back cover of a Rolex (ok yes their advertising bugs me due to the expanse of it), and outside at the station around 20 mini-billboards advertising new books and musicals. And that was an 'Augenblick' of around 20 seconds. Ok I admit this is a serious profession-disability, but the exposure of advertising from various mediums, was a bit of a shocker. So yeah we tell our clients about the impact of OOH and of course we have the stats to support this, but you just don't realise how much there is. And to be honest, there is so much that you just don't see how people can absorb any of it, but then again you sit there and have anyway nothing better to do than sit and stare, not at people (because that would be weird) but at vitamins and travel insurance advice. And ok maybe outdoor media is seen in the ad world as 6-sheets, digital platforms etc. but to me outdoor is everything you consume from simple eye sight once you exit your home or office. So as I slowly reached Paddington I realised that there was absolutely nowhere on my journey where there wasn't some kind of ad exposure. Yay for 'power' of advertising... Though through this clutter you probably don't take in much of it as a Londoner. But there goes hoping..