Finally, What We've All Been Waiting For: Subway Advertising

With the New York Cosmos doing everything they could to establish a foothold ahead of their "rebirth," with radio ads and hawkers handing out Cosmos flyers at Penn Station, and New York City FC reportedly sewing up a deal for their radio rights, many Red Bulls fans were left wondering how the Red Bulls would counter business-wise. It seemed like the Red Bulls were being blown out in their attempts to win the minds of New York residents by a minor league team and another one that doesn't exist yet.

Nostalgia-driven bravado and mere existence aside, the Red Bulls are the city's pro soccer team, for better or worse. And it just didn't seem like they were doing a lot to own that. Until...

#RBNY ad on a NYC subway. pic.twitter.com/3FiH3vjBTy

— Lisa Richardson (@tvlisanyc) September 18, 2013

Richardson would go on to note she saw the ad on the M train. Not the PATH. Not on Goal.com or Facebook. This advertisement was on the New York City Subway.

Not to denigrate the PATH or even the TV spots that played on NBC during this past weekend's Everton-Chelsea match, but the subway ad is something fans have been clamoring for.

To the outsider, it might seem like something so simple it's stupid do want so badly. But even for wanna-be city residents like myself, it's hard to express just how pervasive subway ads can be. New Yorkers spend so much time rolling along the tracks staring at the advertisements plastered all around them, the especially hokey ones have enjoyed something resembling a cult status.

The subway is a huge part of life in the city. It's one of the few common denominators in a place that can have so few. Not everyone has Facebook, not everyone cares about the Premier League. But just about everyone in New York rides the subway.

If you want to declare New York red and white, you have to convince New Yorkers to make the Red Bulls their team. To do that, you have to go where the New Yorkers are. That's the subway.