New York Calls Out Poetry in Motion's Imitators

Why are we so annoyed by subway advertisements which lead us to believe that they are from Poetry Society of America's Poetry in Motion campaign, but by the last line, reveal that they are actually selling us a product? At New York, Jesse Singal looks into the phenomenon, explaining, "If you live in a major American city and ride the subway, once in a while you’ll see a poem, often accompanied by some pretty art, where an advertisement would normally be." From there: 

That’s because since 1992 the Poetry Society of America has bought ad space on subways and given it over to poetry for its “Poetry in Motion” program, touted on the organization’s website as “one of the most popular public literary programs in American history.” In New York, the poets featured have ranged from literary household names like Emily Dickinson to William Carlos Williams to lesser-known-to-most figures like Lady Otomo No Sakanoe.

Last year, the company PolicyGenius — “Comparing Insurance Quotes Made Simple” — decided to spoof Poetry in Motion by placing ads that are laid out similarly at first glance, but which, upon sucking the reader in to believing they are reading a real poem, eventually reveal themselves to be, well, ads for an insurance company. For example:

Blackberries
Fresh milk
All these things
are talked about
in other subway poems.
So
we included them
in this one
We have the space
All we need to say
is that we make it easy
to compare life insurance online.

This idea was well received by some people, apparently. Late last year it won something called the “US Creative Work of the Week,” as voted on by readers of the advertising publication the Drum.

But on the other hand: These ads are terrible and a lot of people hate them. I’m one of them. Every time I see one of these ads my eyebrows arch and I get mad and my mood dips several points.

Read on at New York.