What Street is the McDonald’s Station on?

by nicole ~ August 11, 2008

Next time you visit Dubai (which the city hopes you’ll do) if you stop to ask someone directions, they might sound something like this:

“Take the Coca-Cola line to McDonald’s station, go up the stairs and make a right.”

Confusing?  I think so.

According to this Wall Street Journal article the city is selling advertising rights for some of the stations on their new subway line. The article states:

“Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority is offering naming rights for 23 of the planned 47 metro stops, as well as for the two metro lines themselves. A rider on the new Dubai system might someday be getting off at, say, the Citibank stop on the Nike line.

In addition to appearing on identification signs inside and outside stations, names of the winning corporate bidders will appear on subway-system maps. Moreover, winning companies will have the right of first refusal on traditional advertising displayed at their stations. If Coca-Cola were to win a station’s name, for example, it could block Pepsi ads from appearing at that station.”

For many years advertisers have already taken advantage of the captive audience provided by subway systems, but Dubai is taking it to a whole new level. While I applaud the city for their creativity and new approach to creating funds, I’m very thankful that the subway systems I’ve had to learn in my lifetime (New York and Boston) have not gone this route.  As any subway newbie knows, learning “in-bound” and “out-bound” or which track the A train runs on the weekend is confusing enough, let alone which street the McDonald’s stop is on or where the Coca-Cola line goes.