Metro's New PR Campaign

Big signs.



Guy who appears to be holding up a wide screen TV


Post-It notes

Metro launched a new PR campaign yesterday in an effort to re-brand itself with a friendlier, more Post-itier image and explain its "6-year action plan that is designed to make your life better by making your commuting experience more reliable, more comfortable and more enjoyable."

It certainly got attention, since all the media, including this blog, are covering it.

Above are a few samples of the elements in the new campaign. You can click over to metroforward.com (or metroopensdoors.com or wmata.com ) to see it all.

The launch was not without a few hiccups. Metro relaunched its long-hibernating Facebook page only to be bombarded by Officer Ludwig fans. Metro immediately deleted all the wall comments, completely shut down the wall and blocked/defriended users. Here's a screengrab provided by the Ludwig family. There were dozens of posts and comments deleted. The wall now has content, but users appear unable to post.

And on the Twitter front, things are awfully confusing. First off, many, if not most people still think @wmata is the official Metro feed. It's not. That honor belongs to @metroopensdoors and now, thanks to the campaign, @metroforward.

According to the Examiner, Metro hired an outside consultant to come up with the campaign. A dollar amount was not yet available.

On Twitter, the reaction ranged from great job to fix the trains and escalators and let the service speak for itself.

What's your verdict? Good move? Nice design? Convincing? Befuddlement?