Charing Cross? Um ...

By Jo Last edited 213 months ago
Charing Cross? Um ...

The millions and millions of Londoners who have been to see The Da Vinci Code (sadly not as bad as we'd hoped it would be) or X-Men 3 (happily, not as bad as we'd feared it would be) or any other major release over the past couple of weeks have been treated to TfL's new advert, showing a day in the life of a young man-about-town as he uses the many forms of public transport in London to terrorise old women on the bus, talk to strangers on the tube (breaking a classic cardinal rule in the process), and generally act like a wanky urban knobber. So far, so banal, and we agree with 'Pete' over on Annie Mole's blog who says "It was a bit embarrassing to be honest, like watching your dad trying to dance at a wedding disco : At least they're trying...". Then, nerds that we are, we came across the press release on the TfL website about the advert:

The launch of TfL’s new 60-second advert coincided with the release of the Da Vinci Code. It dramatises TfL’s role in helping Londoners get the most out of their city by following one young man’s action-packed day around town.

It’s only by using different modes of transport and Oyster that he can pack all he needs to do into one Saturday.

He even manages to bump into a surprise celebrity, Gordon Ramsay, on the way.

Gordon Ramsay a "surprise celebrity"? We don't quite follow, but anyway, what REALLY caught our eye was the screenshot at the bottom of the page:

Charing Cross TFL advert.jpg

"First stop Charing Cross" indeed. Hmm. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Charing Cross indeed.jpg
Charing Cross my arse.jpg

Now, that doesn't look like Charing Cross to us. It's kind of hard to tell, but it looks a lot more like Baker Street. Really, a lot more like Baker Street.

Sod it, we're going to go out on a limb and say the station they're calling Charing Cross is, in fact, Baker Street. Honestly. If TfL can't be trusted to tell their stations apart, what hope do we have that they'll manage to keep our dear transport network working smoothly? Hmm?

Last Updated 01 June 2006