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Perhaps we can cancel out the free publicity that Burberry got on this channel by reminding viewers that they set fire to £90m worth of unsold clothes in order to stop them being sold at a discount and thereby protect its image as a luxury brand
@@SmallBlogV8 They could have removed the labels and sold them through the "cabbage" outlets. Cabbage is a name used for clothes that are excess to a retailer's requirements, and which are sold at low prices through non-retail outlets.
@@richardharrold9736dying would have cost extra money. The same goes for cutting out the nametags from inside. That's why these clothing companies most times refer to just destroying them instead of reusing them. Don't forget - the brand might think they are a luxury good and pay you for that feeling, but in the end the shirt is produced in the same sweatshops in Bangladesh as your Primark one and most likely has cost the same cents per unit
It's odd that Burberry chose a solid colour, when their check pattern is world famous. Simply renaming it "Burberry-Bond St" with everything picked out in their classic check might have been as effective, but less confusing for travellers.
I think the outright replacement of the actual station's name is the killer here. At least with "Gareth Southgate Station" you still had the entire actual name of the station visible, so people could at least figure it out. With this, someone just visiting (especially from abroad) would have every right to assume they have come to the wrong "____ Street" station if they're supposed to be at Bond Street.
I agree with Jago bad form this is. The train announcement when I went through said Bond Street on Saturday said it was closed due to a Fire Alarm so only saw the Elizabeth Line Roundels as we sped through. On my way back we did stop and I thought that will confuse the tourist's and this video proves I was right. But then if they are going to change the name to Burberry Street they needed to change everything. So even the announcements say it is Burberry Street. Or they should have put Burberry Street Formally Bond Street. That way nobody would be confused.
I agree with you in principal, but since Bond Street station is actually on Oxford Street, and nowhere near Bond Street, I'd say it's already confusing in the first place..
I'm a Londoner. I'd checked my route before hand. I still hesitated for several seconds at the open doors trying to decided whether to get off. That the inheritors of Harry Beck and Frank Pick's legacies chose to undermine the core point of the tube network in this way is infurating.
@@jerribee1 Why not ? The governments quite rightly spends billions on projects that benefit limited areas of the country - a prime example would be levelling up.
@@jerribee1 Look at that... I would rather have my tax subsidise TfL, instead of anything anywhere else in England... I never use anything else from England.
@@hb1338 The entire "levelling up" budget is less than the central government funding for crossrail. And a good proportion of that is going to London anyway... Oh, and of course the government are doing everything they can to "claw back" the funding that has been allocated. It's just a government talking point, it's having no real effect on anything.
It may be fashionable to complain about tourists on the tube, but I think TfL should consider them more. Things like this are unbelievably confusing to anyone not already familiar with the station.
I've always said this about the Oyster zones ending before thr connection to Windsor, tourists are sold packages that include Windsor attractions and I always wonder how they navigate that issue... I guess most people use contactless these days?
You don’t even need to be a tourist to be confused by something like this. If somebody isn’t regularly in the area or even never and suddenly signage, maps and announcements don’t match at the station you thought you needed to get off, I’d definitely think I went wrong somewhere. If it’s an official renaming of a station, fine. Because it would have been changed everywhere. But referring to a station by a wrong name on the platforms and at entrances is stupid.
This was a promotion for Fashion Week. An event that brings in a large number of people to London that are likely to be unfamiliar with the network. It confuses the very people it is trying to target.
To me, there's a big difference between the whimsy of Barbiecan, Gareth Southgate and Picardilly Circus on the one hand, and the crass commercialism of Burberry Street or Buxton Water on the other. The first group of stations are still easily identifiable from the altered name (although may be less obvious to foreign visitors who are not used to the latin alphabet), but the second are not. There are any number of other "____Street" stations, and in the Docklands area it is entirely plausible that there could be other "____Water" stations. If TfL had shown signs with Bond/Canada crossed out and Burberry/Buxton written on, fair enough - I have no objection to advertising on TfL, as long as it doesn't get in the way of the primary purpose, which is enabling people to travel around London. (On the flip side, calling Ampere Way station "Ikea Ampere Way" was probably _helpful_ to passengers, as Ikea is a major landmark in the area and was probably the destination for a good number of them!)
Some bus station names have Tesco and Sainsburys in their name, something like ____ Road / Sainsburys. They're also typically one of the busiest stops. Certainly helps.
In your conclusion you state that the renaming was confusing "...even if it was only temporary." I actually think that a temporary name change is MORE confusing than if they'd bought a semi-permanent name change, and gone through a public notification process to avoid confusion, instead of just slapping stickers over everything without warning or explanation under the "it's only temporary" justification.
Indeed, a permanent change would appear everywhere - maps, wayfinding, in-train diagrams, etc. This temporary business is only in some places, thus more confusing.
@@JackMitchell404Yes, even though, as Jago says, it is no longer the nearest station to the ground (since the move to the Emirates Stadium). Gillespie Road is actually still the name of the road which runs past the station. I think the deciding factor in keeping the name was the fact that it still has the facilities to handle the crowds, whereas nearer stations Holloway Road and former tube station Drayton Park do not, and so they wish to encourage football goers to continue to use Arsenal (or Finsbury Park).
This reminds me of a year when I was volunteering at a water bottle hand-out station for the London Marathon. As I was working at the Southwark Park station, I had to travel through Canada Water to get there. I initially was quite confused when I arrived at the station to find all the roundels had been altered to say "Buxton Water", however I did catch on quickly (thay year's supplier of bottles had paid to change the station name for a day). After discussing it, myself and other volunteers who travelled in on the tube came to the same conclusion: if it was confusing us locals, then it must have completely thrown tourists who were travelling into the area to watch the marathon. I really do wish TfL would show some restraint with this sort of thing. They're a public transport provider first and foremost, not an advertising agency. An ad that changes the roundels should be a fun event, it shouldn't make using the system difficult.
A similar tale from the far east: when the Brits built the Hong Kong MTR (our tube counterpart), they colour-coded the stations, because in the 70s a considerable portion of the population was illiterate. The colour-coding system was very thought-through, and is still used for new stations: the colours match the meaning of the station names or hint at the geography (e.g. Fortress Hill is green, Prince Edward is purple (how royal), and Waterloo used to be the French tricolour(!)). Every station is very contrastive so you won't see two stations having the same colour in different shades. The colours become part of the station identity. A few years ago, some insurance firm had their adverts cover every bit of a very busy station. Suddenly, the yellow/black station was blue. Coincidentally, the station after -- Admiralty, a major interchange -- is also blue. You can imagine the backlash: even people can read, they can't always see the station name from the train. Thankfully, I haven't seen adverts of this sort ever since.
Cablebús, the cable car system in Mexico City takes this even further. Each station has light blue signage that includes a pictogram that relates either to the station's name or to something prominent nearby.
Didn't expect the MTR to get a mention here... After that TST fiasco I haven't seen them cover up entire stations but I've seen large adverts on the platforms at Mong Kok occasionally that obscure a decent part of the red walls which could be confusing for those like me who only glance quickly at the platform to know what station they're at.
I mean at least most tourists don’t rely on the colour coding they navigate the system, Google Maps won’t say ‘get off at the station with the rainbow walls’ for getting off at Choi Hung Imagine if Causeway Bay MTR station was renamed Chanel Bay MTR station, or 香奈灣 in Chinese, for a month You still got Kowloon Bay, as with Burberry Street you still got Oxford Street, Baker Street etc in the system, confusion will ensue
Pulled into this station with some friends the other day, and even being a tube nerd I had a moment of "where the hell are we?", can't imagine what its like for tourists who don't even know its supposed to be Bond Street. Things like "Barbie-can" I think are okay, it's a bit of fun that works while not fundamentally changing the name of the station, keeping it useable for passengers whilst making some money. But it's a step too far when advertising comes before providing clear signage for passengers.
Agreed. I was all for Barbie-can because it was close enough to the actual name and they even used the Barbie font to show that it was a temporary thing. This was just confusing for everyone and not clever in any way
Can you imagine the response if they'd tried to rename a street, instead of "just" a Tube station? The Tube is just as critical an infrastructure as the streets. What if there's an emergency there, and emergency services get confused by the signage, and it delays their arrival? I must also point out that the signs not only violate Pick's principle of Utility, but his principle of Truth too.
I think the Playstation promo at Oxford Circus is a good way to do advertising. The sponsor is here, while maintaining the standard roundel (albeit smaller).
The Playstation one was perfect in my eyes... still displaying the station name and ensuring nobody gets confused trying to navigate, but also implementing the Playstation brand in a unique way through the similarity of the red circle button and the iconic roundel. Just enough to make you stop and think "Oh, that's clever" but not distracting enough to confuse anybody unfamiliar with where they are. It was both subtle and in-your-face at the same time. More brands should follow in Sony's footsteps for future advertising rather than just renaming and entire station. It'd be very different if they just carelessly slapped "Playstation Circus" over every roundel.
This example is one good way to avoid any confusion when making brands for sponsorship purposes with TFL. So I give credit where it’s due. But the Burberry Street one is one big way to confuse customers, especially tourists at a station where it’s at a shopping district
I’ve lived in London for ages and I got confused. During my commute I read a book and have noise cancelling headphones so I rely heavily on looking up every now and then to know where I am. I need to change at Oxford Circus and it was very confusing when I looked up from my book and saw ‘that’. Genuinely got confused and for 2 seconds I have thought that I had overshot my stop by a long stretch. I do agree, touches, aesthetics changes are fine, but not completely changing the station and erasing functional signs and diagrams. They can wrap the whole thing in tin foil for marketing as far as I’m concerned, as long as I can see where the exit is, my interchange and what bloody station it is.
So TfL should forgo the revenue and all the things they can invest it in, with all the benefits that will bring to thousands of people, because for 2 seconds on one day, you got mildly confused, partially because you were engrossed in a book and not your surroundings? Other than that, how did it affect you? Would you say more or less than having to walk down an escalator at Bond Street every day for two weeks because TfL didn't take Burberry's money, so can't get it fixed as quickly as they would like? I reckon when you add them up, the minutes of delay that would cause everyone would dwarf the minutes of confusion experienced by everyone who got confused by the temporary rebranding. When you look at the whole picture and accept that the announcements on the trains, the line maps on the trains, the Tube map and the website/apps didn't change, then how much actual damage was actually done by TfL changing one station name for a week in return for shedloads of cash they can do some good with? Cash that might actually make your own journey easier when it gets spent.
I was a victim of the confusion on Sunday. I am a student at Brunel which is considerably outside central London so I wanted to check out central so I took to the Elizabeth line with full faith in Google Maps but lo and behold I ended up on Burberry street instead of Bond Street like Google said. Eventually one of the people on the platform saw me confused by the line diagram and asked if I needed help, that's when I found out that I was in fact at Bond Street. This isn't the first time I've been on the Tube but I rarely ever travel on the Elizabeth line so this was super confusing for me.
I have a big problem with the fact that none of this helps navigation. When people just want to get around, they have to double check they're at the right stop, and that adds cumulative delay and reduces throughput. Fine, change the colour if you must, maybe even one or two roundels. But changing the lot is bound to cause confusion.
I for one think TFL can go further in changing important signage to appease advertisers - think of all the potential income! Instead of "exit", it can be "Emirates", instead of "lifts" we can rename them to "Lynx", and instead of "platforms" you can rename it to "Pradas". I mean, regular tube-goers know where the exits and lifts and platforms are, so why not rename them? Londoners will get used to heading down to the Pradas Lynx to get to Crystal Pepsi on the McDonalds Line!
This advertising has the exact opposite effect on me, in that I’d just end up peeved at Burberry for causing a sudden flash of panic and confusion when I’m just trying to get to where I want to be. I was in London only yesterday for the first time in ages, and so glad I didn’t have to deal with this nuisance. Did nobody from TFL or Burberry even consider that this was a bad idea?
I suspect TfL considered it very carefully indeed. Their day-to-day operations get no public subsidy, so fares and third party revenue need to fund the cost of that. They will have made a lot of money out of this, which be cash they can reinvest in things which have long-term positive implications for way more customers than got mildly confused for a week at Bond Street. If they can keep five escalators in service, part-fund a new entrance at a station that suffers crowding at peak times, or keep a station staffed so there's someone to help the blind customer safely on and off the train, then way more people will benefit than ever got confused at Burberry Street.
The stupidity of this prank (for lack of a better word) really boggles the mind. But while that clothing company bought it, it is TFL that need to review how they work with sponsorships.
Yes. In a capitalist system I expect companies to think only of their bottom line. Of the awful things companies do this isn't anywhere near the bottom. I expect a darn sight better from a public funded body though.
@@SamI-bv9kd the funding for TfL 'operations and maintenance' comes through the fares and the generation of third-party revenue such as this. Most other transport authorities are very subsidised, but not TfL. They get some public money for large expansion or improvement works, but none to get your Jubilee train out of the depot on a Monday morning and into service. They make no profit - their income is reinvested to cover their costs and keep things running. Their bottom line is 'make money or cut things'. I think that in the cold light of day, with no hyperbole, the revenue generated from this short term rebranding will help far more people than suffered any mild inconvenience during the week it was in place. Somewhere an escalator is going to get fixed rather than lie idle, a leaking station roof is going to be repaired, or a station entrance will be modified to become step-free and open up another way to travel for someone who needs it. No one, except Burberry will be asked to pay one penny more to make those things happen and everyone at those locations will benefit from not having the inconvenience of them causing daily problems, or causing stations to shut when the lack of maintenance reaches a critical level. Yes, some people found the temporary rebrand mildly confusing or it offended their sense of order, but long term they might derive significant benefit from something fleeting and with no long-term impact having delivered a healthy wad of cash.
@@SamI-bv9kd So you are saying that TFl only thought about the bottom line in this instance? You are correct. How much money would it take to get you to take back that statement by the way? I mean, if you are paid enough, you have no moral responsibility, right?
I agree in every way. Sure, TfL needs to make some money, but deliberately making navigation more difficult for tourists in on of the most touristy areas is just plain stupid. And then you have to wonder about the environmental impact of making and installing all that signage for one week.
It’s astounding how Londoners scream “Buh the tourists!!!!” anytime there’s a rename but it’s far more confusing when the system is regularly buggered.
I agree about the tourist thing, but environmental impact? Oh come on, it's just a few stickers. There are far bigger environmental injustices to get enraged about.
it's just so incredibly tacky that's what annoys me the most... it wouldn't look out of place in LA or something but is just so cringeworthy here in London
@@mdhazeldine If you've ever worked on a marketing campaign, you'll know that something like this is a vast amount of work. It likely took the best part of a year of planning, designing, consulting, redesigning, manufacturing, and tweaking to achieve it. And it's way more than just a few stickers. They changed the whole look & feel of the station, including the colour scheme. There would have been hundreds of tests to make sure everything fit perfectly and was signed off, and it's all in the bin now.
Agreed Jago. Some American tourists seem to have quite enough navigation difficulty with stations named as they should be. Adding an additional layer of confusion for them like this is just asking for trouble.
I despise name changes like this for the confusion they cause. A while back I lived in Canada Water. Shortly after the birth of my son, when sleep deprivation was at it's worst I was on my way home from a long rough day's work on a rammed Jubilee carriage. The signs barely visible from the window were the only indicator of where I was, and on that day I arrived at Buxton Water. My mangled brain couldn't make the mental connection fast enough to then enable me to get off the train in time and as a result I had a long miserable trip to Canary Wharf and back again. I won't buy Buxton Water again.
@@davidjames579 Chances are that I was wearing headphones like most commuters do. In any case the announcements get mentally tuned out as part of the general background noise once you've done the trip a few times.
If I can be tolerated for a long-winded story, I feel that I can provide an experience that’s relevant to the point of this video Although I have lived in Yorkshire for the past 20 years, I have visited London very regularly when I was younger - maybe 4 or 5 times a year - as my father lived there. I am also autistic, and had to learn how to understand how the underground worked from the perspective of someone who tends to overthink and over complicate these kinds of systems in my head. Still, with experience, I got the hang of it. I now travel pretty regularly, and while I don’t go to London specifically as often anymore, I’m quite comfortable with using the underground, though I wouldn’t say I have any of the lines memorised. I could name most stations, but not where they are or what connections can be made from them, but I can at least read the maps quickly at a glance and navigate my way on the underground comfortably. This past weekend, I went to London for the first time since before lockdown due to covid. I got back into the swing of travelling on the underground quickly - not much had changed after all, and I agree that it’s largely an intuitive system. Every diagram, every departure board and every station sign all give clear information without giving more than is necessary, so it was very easy to pick up again. With the key exception of what was Burberry Street. Being completely honest, I didn’t realise it was an advertisement campaign until I saw this video in my RU-vid recommendations, but it did throw me at the time. The announcement on the train said that Bond Street would be next, and yet the signs as the train arrived in the station all said Burberry Street. I thankfully didn’t need to get off there, but I remember the brief moment of panic as I tried to check that I was on the correct line and that my information was accurate. I was wondering if there was another station added to the line, and that Bond Street might be next. Or maybe a new split on the train line. It was particularly frustrating that I couldn’t check this as on the same weekend, the central line was suffering major delays and I had to worry about my connections if the stations weren’t as I expected. Of course all I could do was to wait on the train and see if things would make sense later on. And they did, which helped me realise that Bond Street was just renamed. But all of this is to say that I agree - the name change IS confusing and can cause issues for those not familiar with the underground. Had I not had the experience with it that I already did, I imagine it’d cause even more panic and issues for me, and I may have gotten off the train just to reorient myself. And while that sounds harmless enough, London is so dense and busy that all travel needs to be as efficient as possible, and if a few dozen others had the same issues and thoughts, it’s the sort of thing that can have a knock-on effect. Changing the name of the station really undermines the elegant clarity and ease of travel that makes London able to function.
From the NHS website: "The Equality Act (2010) places a requirement on public services to anticipate and prevent discrimination against people with disabilities, which includes people with a learning disability, autism or both." If it hadn't occurred to TfL that they were breaking this regulation, I would say you have a good case to make it clear to them if that would prevent this happening again. If they had changed the spoken announcement to "Burberry Street" it would send panic into the heart of a visually impaired person. A change like this goes deeper than whimsy - it's profits over people and lack of consideration. Sorry for the rant - members of my family are autistic and your story really resonated with me.
Jago, if you coughed up enough dosh you could get TfL to rename a station Hazzard Station, although they might feel it could be rather off-putting to passengers.
@@brianparker663Which one's it going to be then? Hampstead, or Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3? 🤣🤣🤣 (Sorry, I shouldn't give them ideas for creating further mayhem!)
They did this in Boston in the 90s with renaming a stop from State Street to Citizens' Bank Plaza. They also repainted a car (on a different line) in the company's color as well. It went over horribly. They had to semi-de-rename the station "Citizens' Bank / State" because the name change confused everyone. Eventually it was removed and never done again.
@@Foebane72On the roundels that could have been managed, which would have alleviated a lot of the confusion. Still not a good idea to mess around with the name at all though.
To change the name of a station for an advertising gimmick is bloody irresponsible and tfl should be ashamed of themselves. It borders on the criminal.
@@edwardhackett-jones8126 Yes, you are right! This faux outrage is very short sighted and performative. What would be criminal would be TfL, who have to fund day to day operations from fares and third party revenue, turning their backs on a cash that can help them fund maintenance and improvements. Improvements which will deliver long lasting benefit to way more people than the mild inconvenience caused by a week long change to some of the station name signage at Bond Street. The maps, apps, on-train announcements etc didn't change, people were not left with no way of knowing where they were and no one will have been unable to find a way around the issue. The cash generated on the other hand will man that somewhere a lift gets fixed or old, costly lighting is upgraded to brighter, cheaper and more efficient LED bulbs. A new handrail might be installed on a flight of stairs, or a new bench in a long subway to help those who need some assistance. More will benefit on an ongoing basis from this brief rebrand than ever will have been mildly inconvenienced. It borders on the embarrassing when people spout hyperbole without considering the whole story...
Just incredible for TfL to do this on all the roundels and other signage inside and outside the station, and to not even put 'Bond Street' in brackets anywhere.
In Paris when there are temporary station name change, for events or marketing reasons, it's always in a way where the name stay in a way or another, most of the time it's a play on word that sounds the same or a change in character set, or a typo, it's most of the time pretty creative and rarely misleading.
We have had those as well, such as Barbican having the logo for the Barbie film on the front. A small change but it's still obvious where you are. This one is just confusing though.
I was there only two days ago and although it is a clever marketing thing I do not think it should have been allowed as it could really confuse tourists and the elderly.
@@jennythescouser I could see myself going the usual route but then when seeing the sign wonder if I went through some portal to an alternate universe. lol
It's not even that clever. I was a bit annoyed by the Barbie-can and the Picardilly Circus ones, but at least they were clever wordplays that were very similar to the actual station names. With this one, it's basically "hey, they both start with a 'B', that's close enough!".
It could also cause issues for some neurodiverse and disabled people too. There were massive problems with the Pride pedestrian crossings a few years ago because some people just couldn't work out that they were crossings. I can imagine some poor person riding up and down the line trying to work out what happened to Bond Street!
A better idea for the temporary roundels would of been to go with the current knight blue colours but to keep the original Bond Street name intact while the word Burberry could be incorporated into both the top and bottoms of the roundel circles and be a really light grey so they don’t conflict with the station name but are still highly visible! :)
If there isn't push-back on a full-house identity change without notice this time around, then other companies will start doing it too and it will steadily destabilise people's trust in either their own knowledge of the network or the network's ability to guide them around London... at which point they might decide to get a taxi/bus/other car to make sure they're less likely to get lost.
Have to say that here in Scotland, Burberry is associated with Neds (please see your nearest Scot for translation). I remember going to work in Paisley and seeing a Burberry check pram in a shop window. Everyone had a good laugh about it in the office.
Same down in the south. It was especially a Kent/ Essex boy thing, wearing the caps. This is probably why they didn’t use the Burberry check print for the roundel. This would have been the obvious thing to do. Leave the name as Bond Street, just change the roundels to Burberry check.
I fully agree with you, this stunt was unnecessarily confusing. Perhaps when the forthcoming film "Paddington in Peru" is released, "Leicester Square" will be renamed "Paddington" in the same way. The original "Paddington" would, of course, be renamed "Peru" to avoid any confusion. Now about that army ...
The part I don't get is why they chose to rename the station when Burberry has a well known fashion pattern. Wouldn't it be better to change the roundel to something involving said pattern. I am not a Londoner nor have I extensively used the London Transport network so If, for example, I was given directions to go to or change at Bond street, then I would be incredibly confused as to where Bond street is
As an Australian who lived in the UK and worked on farms in Essex, Cambridge and Hereford and also owned a house in Brixton. I lived by my A to Z and traversed everywhere on the Tube. I agree I would have been totally lost if the names of the stations were changed. The tube was how I found my way around London. Advertise as much as you want but do not change the names. Tots agree with Jago.
Never heard of Burberry before and now I will always think of them as "that company with the stupid marketing department". The concept of renaming the station is just so insane.
There's a thing that feels different here for a commercial brand sponsoring a name change from, say, Gareth Southgate Station which honoured a person for a very specific time. But this is confusing as it changes a name for actual wayfinding. It should have been announced much sooner and in proper ways (i.e. all other stations). So, if it were permanent (or meant to), then fine... ish. But I have to agree with you.
Addendum: some who might say "hey, it's only temporary" I will give them this: Burberry is an English imprint so there's an element of "national pride"? to this. And the shade of blue is lovely, to be fair.
Knowing how much foreign tourists love their designer brands (I've been through Bicester Village station enough times that I could probably recite the trilingual announcements by heart now...) - I wonder how many of them headed to Bond Street this week specifically to visit the Burberry store, were unable to find it thanks to this bit of silliness, and left empty-handed? I hope the answer is "lots", because that would be poetic justice.
the nearest thing I've experienced to this was in winter 2019, when Barnsley Interchange was renamed to "Barnsleigh", as a Christmas-related pun given the general state of educational standards, I and many others thought this was just a spelling error and didn't even realise it was a pun also, since 2018 (or earlier?) a number of Sheffield's trams and taxis have had pink unicorns and PrettyLittleThing logos on them, making it longest-running advertising campaign I've ever seen on any form of public transport; I believe their main warehouse is in up in the industrial quarter in Tinsley
@@clickrickI almost forgot, it's been a tradition for a few years now on Shrove Tuesday to show Javekin trains on South Eastern from places like Ashford International to "London St Pancake." We're slowly going mad, sign of the times methinks.
I love your no-nonsense, no-drama take, with historical facts to provide context. I think it’s refreshing to see in a world of “hot takes”. It’s why I keep coming back to this channel.
We have my mother-in-law and nephew in town from the USA for a week. She's in her early seventies and is still very capable (we walked 18k steps on day 1, 17k on day 2) but did find it a challenge to get to grips with the London Underground maps. Understanding which line to get on, checking the destination stations, even reading the diagrams on the trains seemed (to me) to be more of a challenge than they should be. Then I remembered that I've been taking the tube a few times a year since I was 14 (I'm now 40) but she's seeing it for the first time age 73. If there had been a station that was totally renamed without warning, that would have really confused her. Had we not been there to navigate, she would have had a hard enough time getting to the stations that were correctly named, let alone one that had been completely changed the maps, roundels, signs, and train diagrams.
Hello Jago, I agree with you about this “renaming” of BOND STREET. My view is that, although an advertising stunt by Burberry, it does not help the commuters using the station, as you mentioned having to help/advise those confused by this overall renaming. Very few people will notice the track-side proper roundel particularly when a train blocks them from view. Best wishes from my correctly named part of Oxfordshire (but no roundels. Frank Pick wasn’t here!)
I am a Londoner who takes the Elizabeth line relatively frequently and I almost got off in a panic thinking I’d somehow got on a new branch of the Elizabeth line that I didn’t know existed. Felt like a complete fool - another passenger had to tell me what was going on. If I’d got off I’d have missed the train I was trying to catch at Paddington. Totally agree that anything actually confusing to passengers should not be allowed.
I agree with you. Temporarily renaming a station is poor, and there can be some serious implications. What if there is a fire at the station, passengers call 999 to warn the London Fire Brigade of a fire at Burberry Station, and the fire dispatcher says "Where is that?"
Fantastic point. Or, more seriously, what if there had been a terror attack? Unless literally all emergency services and 999 call handlers had been told that the station had been temporarily renamed, it would have caused uncessary delay and confusion when summoning help.
got to agree with you, i think it’s incredibly confusing especially for tourists, who are a major part of the underground’s customers. totally undermines the idea to make the tube easy to use
Reminds me a little of the name change on the munich S-Bahn Network. Back in 2004 there was the station of Nannhofen, because it was located by the town of Nannhofen, just opposite of the fast line tracks and a few hundred meters was the town of Mammendorf. So Mammendorf paid up to have the sign replaced all internal documents refering to the station name and everything that needed to be changed to have the staton name changed from Nannhofen to Mammendorf. They did this in order to promote their town and since they were bigger they also had more money to do so. So since then the stations been renamed despite the fact that it is actually bordering the town of Nannhofen.
I actually didn’t know this, even though I pass by there every week. But to be fair, this change absolutely makes sense. Nannhofen is tiny and belongs to Mammendorf and the main village very much does border the station, at least nowadays. So if it didn’t border it 20 years ago, the promotion apparently worked.
Jago, here's a video idea: do a Freedom of Information request about Oyster records, looking for weird travel patterns while these signs were up. Things like people going through the station only to get off one or two stations later then immediately return. Or, while there probably was an increase in station entries and exits, I wonder if there was actually a dip when corrected for previous fashion weeks, perhaps pre-pandemic. It can't be that hard for TfL to extract the data. I bet you're handy with spreadsheets but I'd gladly help with some analysis if needed.
It's interesting to note that while the signs along the top are still the same, TfL do seem to have since removed all the roundel signs (at platform level at least), presumably due to the controversy.
I'm more outraged about ads for cheese being banned on the tube. I think "Red Leicester Square" or "Swiss Cheese Cottage" would have made great promos.
Northern (the mainline rail franchise) did something similar back in December 2019. A few stations had their names changed to crudely incorporate vaguely Christmassy words, like Barnsleigh, Hartleyule, Blackpool North Pole. Apparently this had a tenuous link to a few charities, but I can't help but think that the charities would have done better with a few posters, and a donation of however much it cost to change the station names.
I applaud your stance on this - it is as always tastefully done but it strikes a point firmly, with which I fully agree. Now, tell us more about the All Girl Army of Kung Fu Killers?
You'd think if they had to change the name, they'd call it "Burberry/Bond Street" or something similar to reduce confusion. Even as a Londoner, I hadn't heard of this change.
I myself was a tourist in London a couple of weeks ago. In fact i was part of a whole group of tourists. And I will have you know that most of us certainly would not have been able to recognize the change. Me watching your videos alone was the reason why we were even able to navigate the tube relatively smoothly, if I may say so myself.
I totally agree with you on this. When Virgin Trains renamed Wolverhampton to Wolverine it caused confusion with less regular travellers. It shouldn’t be allowed.
I’m amazed I can talk about my two main areas of interest for once! I love the Underground, but also study Fashion and I wholeheartedly agree with you. The trouble is, Burberry appointed a new creative director (Daniel Lee) last year who is sort of trying to reinvent the brand, if I’m not wrong. So whilst most people recognise their legendary checkered pattern, it’s not something they’ve leaned into so heavily recently. I think their more minimalistic approach to their identity means that doing something like this was always bound to lead to confusion, as most people don’t necessarily follow changes to companies like this. I’m sure there could have been a way to “take over” the station so to speak without changing the name, and using a shade of blue that more or less doesn’t look that different from what TFL already use. It’s a subtle change that to the passing tube customer wouldn’t necessarily think of as a marketing campaign, which I think means it just wasn’t a great idea… Maybe painting the tunnels with blue posters or something may have been a better idea?
They just don’t have that much of a distinct colour identity so to speak If Knightsbridge station was branded with the roundel in Harrods distinctive green and the name of the station in gold with their font it’ll make for effective branding without the name of the station changed
@@TheSebastian1012 I agree. I think when put with other fashion brands with their own brand identity, Burberry can definitely stand out. But I think as a high-end fashion brand, they don’t really need to have distinct logos and colours like others do, because they’re just not aiming for the same market. I think a lot of fashion brands have gone for minimalism in their logos and such in recent years, so it really does make widespread marketing almost pointless? No one knows your logo font if it’s generic, so it’s almost like what’s the point of bothering with gimmicks like this? A lot of people wouldn’t even relate Burberry to their knight logo 🤷🏻♀️
Jago Hazzard and His All-Girl Kung-Fu Killers (1971). Directed by Val Guest, and staring Robin Askwith as Jago Hazzard, Mary Millington as Lucy “Deadly Kitten” Lavine, Diana Dors as the Duchess and Arthur Morrison as Detective Inspector Rain, this was a British sexploitation film that was (unusually for a film staring Askwith) a box office bomb. However it developed a cult following and the character of Rain in particular was thought to have been a major influence on RD Wingfield in his creation of Detective Inspector Frost a year later.
The Elizabeth line from Paddington through to Liverpool Street is a journey I've made many times before and I still found myself checking the map to work out where the hell I was. It was a bit like missing a step on the way down the stairs.
I agree it's confusing especially for tourists, but my inner sense of mischief quite likes the idea of station names changing suddenly and at random. Don't do it for commercial reasons though, do it for fun. Mornington Crescent should be renamed I'm sorry, I haven't a clue.
And Southfields or Wimbledon changed to "You Cannot Be Serious?" Re: the Mornington Crescent suggestion, I don't think even Mrs Trellis of North Wales would be prepared to bankroll the proceedings!! 😂😂😂
TFL really dropped the ball with this one, surprised they allowed it to that extent. I'm not a tourist but I use the tube infrequently enough that I'd have probably been confused.
Piccadilly Circus station was renamed Picardilly Circus to promote Star Trek's movie Picard. It would be interesting to know if any stations are likely to change name permanently in the near future. For instance, perhaps Arsenal should revert to Gillespie Road, which I kinda like better, and it would end any confusion to do with the station's tiling.
As a Spurs fan, I admit I'm a bit biased! But I do prefer Gillespie Road. It's more interesting, and of course with the "foot the ball" ground now relocated, it makes no sense for the station to still be called Arsenal.
I had to change at bond street on sunday, during my first ride on the Lizzie line. This completely threw me, and i very nearly missed my stop. My boyfriend and I (both fans of you) spoke about how stupid the idea was for elderly + intellectually disabled people just trying to navigate their lives - very pleased you agree and have covered this.
@@richardharrold9736 The problem is that Crossrail is really a _type_ of line rather than a particular one. (Crossrail 2 _could_ happen, at least theoretically.) I like the names _the Purple line,_ or _the Lizard line._ The latter is fairly descriptive of the shape on the map, and you can shorten it to the Liz Line and lie to royalists that it's short for Elizabeth. I still resent the fact that they changed the wonderful name _The Fleet Line_ to the awful _the Jubilee Line._ Who cares that they changed the route away from the River Fleet -- "fleet" in the sense of speedy is such a good name for a transport line.
@@richardharrold9736 This fellow republican here simply interprets such names in a generic manner rather than heavily associating it with any royal family members. I just call it the Lizzie Express(compared to other slower tube lines), though for the Victoria Line I simply call it as "the Shortcut Line"(in comparison to the Northern Line!)
I remember reading news articles about a similar thing having happened to Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 some years back, and that form of advertising seemed to be referred to as a brand takeover, so I assume it's the same with what you showed. I agree with what others mentioned, and as someone who has never visited anywhere in the UK in person, I agree that it can confuse tourists and for some, put in negative perception of the brand and the company's ENTIRE marketing department.
We were on a trip to London on the day these came in. I was very confused at first and thought we'd gone the wrong way from Paddington on the Elizabeth Line before I had deduced it was just some advertising rename for fashion week, which I was already aware of happening. I can see how tourists could get very confused without any other context.
As a American tourist who has been visiting Britain for 31 years I have to say that the paper maps and all the apps on your phone will have Bond Street, not Burberry Street. It will confuse people. And incidentally, has anybody ever decided to buy something because they saw a sign?
Completely agree with you 👍🏻 I’ve just got in from travelling through London on public transport Signs and landmarks are an essential way to interpret where you are and to confirm you’ve gone the right way Even for someone who is familiar and confident when ALL the signs are changed it’s very disconcerting If stations changed their name in the past they included the old name with the new name Burberry street( Bond Street) Simple really
I originally thought a new secret station suddenly opened. Then I realised it was Bond Street, but it was too late because we were already departing for Tottenham Court Road. Had to catch the filthy old Central line back.
Even better, they could introduce a scheme similar to "Sponsor a highway" -- have a station named after you for a given period! Lots of potential for utter confusion!
It seems like part of the reason it’s confusing and therefore a bad idea is because it is temporary. Stations and other utilities like that get name changes occasionally but importantly they don’t tend to just switch back after a while.
Thanks Jago for the last few videos. I’ve been watching in Borneo and this particular one in an airport lounge in Singapore. In all honesty he heat and humidity you take me back to dear old Blighty. Thank you.
Totally agree with you, Jago. Paris' metro does the same sometimes, renaming some stations for fun. But it was always done in a way that would let tourists know what station they're at.
Bournville railway station here in Brum (I refuse to say 'train station') was named after the Cadbury model village and adopts the Cadbury colours. But the area and railway station name have been this way for generations, and are unlikely to change and confuse.
I used to pass through Bournville in the early 90s and I'm pretty sure the station railings were Cadbury purple then, so that's at least 30 years! (Crikey I'm old!)
I'm with you and your all-girl army of kung fu killers! On behalf of infrequent tourists to London, I think you draw the line very neatly where it should be drawn.
A point well made! The tube is already awash with advertising, but it shouldn't be allowed to affect the ability for strangers. I draw the same line when it comes to busses that are so covered in advertising that they cease to be red. You want to be able to spot a bus coming down the road from some distance
