Metro Vancouver transit users stumped by strange SkyTrain ad
If you’ve taken a trip on the SkyTrain or bus in Metro Vancouver lately, you may have spotted a bizarre ad that has puzzled many transit users.
One Reddit user posted about the ad in the British Columbia subreddit.
“A close friend of mine texted me this photo of what looks to be a real ad that real people paid to have displayed on the SkyTrain. We cannot, for the life of us, figure out what is going on. Hopefully, someone here knows what’s happening,” they wrote.
The ad in question reads: “A green goose, red horse and brown elephant are moving to Vancouver…”
Submitted by Kelly (Reddit)
It shows the animals as simple graphics, each with its own thought (or speech) bubbles.
The green goose is pictured saying, “Vancouver is such a quiet peaceful town…”
The red horse says, “Yeah the people are so nice…”
The yellow elephant replies, “…and there are so many things to do…”
In response, the duck and horse seem to be asking what kinds of things you can get up to in Vancouver, to which the yellow elephant replies, “Where do I start…”
The structure of the animals’ speech bubbles reads awkwardly, which seems to be adding to the confusion of the ad’s intended message.
The graphic also doesn’t appear to feature any affiliated organization or company, adding to the mystery.
Folks who replied to the Redditor’s post shared their thoughts on what the ad could mean while also poking fun at its simplistic graphic design.
“The more I look at this, the more I feel like I’m having a stroke,” said one commenter.
“This is one of the most dumbest ways I’ve seen speech balloons done,” said another.
“The first two lines of each speech balloon are meant to be read first from left to right. Then, the third line from left to right. God, I thought I was too incompetent to be a graphic designer, but apparently I was mistaken.”
“Sometimes they run two part ads to generate interest like this, then the second similar ad with the actual thing being advertised runs the following month,” one Redditor theorized.
Another commenter thought that it wasn’t a paid ad, “but rather a piece of original artwork surreptitiously hung by the artist themself.”
Others claimed that the ad was for a new app that compiled different local events in the city, but part of the graphic identifying the company got covered up.
TransLink provides answers for mysterious SkyTrain ads
Daily Hive Urbanized reached out to TransLink to see if the transit authority had any information on the advertisements.
A TransLink representative clarified that while the ads were legitimate, their contract had expired, and they will be removed from transit vehicles.
An ad for what appears to be the Torra app. (TransLink)
According to the transit authority, the ads are linked to a local events app called Torra. TransLink also shared a photo of a different ad picturing a squirrel, monkey, and penguin with speech bubbles similar to the one in the photo shared on Reddit.
This graphic displayed a picture of what appears to be a phone app next to it.
According to Torra’s online description, it’s a “new events and transit app to find what is happening nearby in Vancouver.”
A TransLink representative suggested that in the case of the photo shared on Reddit, the app’s name may have been cut off due to how it was displayed on the SkyTrain.
Daily Hive Urbanized has reached out to Torra for more information.