Never been?
Take a seat. Stay awhile. Kick back inside the two-dimensional saloon, improbably pasted wall-to-wall inside the 42nd Street Shuttle, whose heaps of fake jugs and bottles ensure the bar will never be bare.
Or cozy up beside the fireplace, plastered to a door in a neighboring car, where a rendered shelf of leatherbound books and a list of the train’s emergency instructions commingle.
For several weeks, riders in Manhattan have witnessed the fruits of the Arizona city’s daring gamble: that a $225,000 investment in an advertising campaign will lure perhaps the nation’s most skeptical audience — the grouches and hucksters of the New York City subway — to the American Southwest.
“New Yorkers are just so busy,” said Caroline Stoeckel, the vice president of marketing for the Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We’re embedding that seed of ‘Hey, maybe I’ve never considered Scottsdale before.’ ”
No detail has been spared. Walls are adorned with the rolling greens of a Scottsdale golf course, the ocean-blue tiles of a Scottsdale spa, the decorative skull of a Scottsdale bull. Subway doors have been reimagined as a tavern entryway or the swinging doors of a golf clubhouse.
Frames encase images of some of the area’s attractions: the Arizona Cowboy College (where a lassoing gent wears a black cowboy hat), the Rusty Spur Saloon (where a man in a lighter cowboy hat dips his dance partner scandalously low), and Fort McDowell Adventures (where several men in cowboy hats roast food over a fire).
“The level of detail,” said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, “is not common.”
In one regard, Scottsdale is not alone.
The authority introduced the “full-body wrap” in 2008, employing vinyl technology more commonly seen on buses. Since then, shuttle riders have seen pitches for everything from sports teams to television shows on the outside of trains. And of course, other locales have tested their messages on New York’s rails: There were paeans to the shores of Florida, and the quixotic charms of Brazil and Denmark.
A Scottsdale train even found itself competing with a train across the platform. The other train, publicizing St. Petersburg, Fla., was festooned with images as predictable as they are appealing: a high-flying dolphin and a brightly colored cocktail, cascading waters and sun-kissed sand between the toes of visitors.
In Scottsdale, though, officials acknowledge that the task is more complicated — equal parts sales pitch and public awareness program.
“We want to get Scottsdale in people’s consideration set,” Ms. Stoeckel said. “It’s giving people the idea of coming here. That’s sometimes the hardest thing.”
Ms. Stoeckel said that visitors from New York — “the No. 1 feeder market for Scottsdale during winter season” — generate an average daily revenue of $350 on hotel property alone and stay for an average of 3.3 nights. Conservatively, then, given the cost of the campaign, an increase of roughly 200 visitors from New York City in the coming months would most likely qualify the project as a success.
Early reviews have been mixed.
“It’s not going to make me go to Arizona,” Regina Shaw, a train operator for the shuttle, said on Tuesday night. “Florida, maybe.”
Pavla Bartoszova, 27, from Long Island, swore never to visit Arizona because “Arizona is next to Oklahoma,” she said, wiping New Mexico from the map, “and I hate Oklahoma.”
She did not elaborate.
The themed train cars — golf, spa and “outdoor lifestyle Western,” according to Ms. Stoeckel — did win occasional praise from riders. Kara Zelman, 22, from Murray Hill, allowed that her car, with its fake wooden seating, had succeeded in evoking a spa setting. She paused briefly.
“More so than on other subways,” she amended.
Rob Fuller, from Fort Greene, Brooklyn, said that the interior designed to resemble a golf clubhouse, with its cushy-looking seats, “reminds me of my dad’s car.”
But nearby, it was clear that the travelers remained a long way from the desert. Commuters jostled for position near the door, unwilling to slide into the middle of the train. A singer on board solicited tips, lobbing profanities at those who did not oblige. A McDonald’s cup was laid at the base of the fireplace.
And a few steps from the flames, two riders executed a signature feat of northeastern hospitality. They stood nearly nose to nose, close enough to embrace but far enough that neither administered a space-clearing elbow. They made no eye contact.
But in the hands of each rested the same piece of reading material: The New Yorker.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/nyregion/a-trip-to-arizona-in-a-short-subway-ride.html?partner=rss&emc=rss