March 20, 2008
Metro Hopes Peeps Can Convince You Not to Drive to Nationals Stadium
We were just forwarded what may be the worst, and somehow at the same time the absolute greatest, Metro ad campaign we've ever run across. The video above, uploaded to YouTube yesterday, is part of WMATA's efforts to make sure as many people as possible take public transportation to the new Nationals Park at the Navy Yard, instead of driving.
Allow us to set the scene for you: Three lifeless Easter Peeps, all office workers, are planning on going to opening day together. Two of the Peeps are good Peeps, and plan to take Metro. One of the peeps is a bad Peep, and tries to drive. You'll just have to watch the entire video spot to find out if Bad Peep gets what's coming to him!
The real genius of the spot is that Metro clearly spent in total about $8 and 90 minutes with a MacBook throwing it together. At least no one can accuse them of overspending in this worsening economy.
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Holy shneezle. Can't... stop... laughing. Every time they switch to the shot of BadPeep zipping along on top of his VW Bug in total silence...
I was expecting some kind of Mr Bill style ending with the peep getting run over by a car or something.
I've never seen the Beltway so free of traffic. I guess there wasn't enough money in the production budget because they spent it all on 7 people fixing the Metro escalator yesterday.
Three lifeless Easter Peeps, all office workers, are planning on going to opening day together.
Whoa. Hold the phone, Mabel. You mean Peeps were alive at some point? They better be halal or I'm going to be pissed. And not they-cancelled-Platipus-Man pissed, either. I'm talking making-jihad-against-the-infidels-we-will-all-eat-lamb-in-paradise pissed.
Peace,
+++JMJ+++
Hi-larious....what can't peeps do?
Voice acting, you're doin' it wrong.
i love independent films.
How could you not have referenced our peep diorama in the metro post! We submitted a diorama of metrobus running over peeps last year to the Post's peep diorama contest (and put it in the DCist flickr pool). We didn't win, but were mentioned in the Post story as being provacative and somewhat tasteless!
Check it out in the DCist flickr pool!
That driver Peep is totally a Virginia driver given how bad he was driving.
Not to mention that he seemed to be rectally impaled on the top of his VW.
Clever, but I think it would have been sooo much better if they had shown the Peeps at real life size the entire time (like they do with the boss driving his car). Otherwise, the video splicing/editing the Peeps in at human size is kinda lame.
totally awesome - they have some creative people working at metro! I was just talking to someone going to the exhibition opener, who was worried about parking. Maybe if you're not comfy getting tush-to-tush underground for a few minutes driving still outweights metro, but it's probably not going to be the fastest.
"I heard they tripled the capacity of this station to handle 15,000 people an hour."
"That's good, because they expect 24,000 people to come by Metro."
Uh oh. Somebody's not very good at math.
The one peep was clearly standing on the left of the escalator. No one was behind them, but still...bad form.
fedward -
not everybody is coming at the same time.
I still remember a few years back being followed by the Peeps-mobile on I-76. It freaked me out to glimpse a giant Peep rising above the horizon behind me as the Peeps-mobile ascended over a hill.
fedward,
not everyone will be hopping off the metro at the same time. there are also several other metro stations within 10-15 minutes walking distance.
Peeeeeeeps! I can't wait to see the Post contest winners again this year. Those were awesome. I heard they are going to be at Artomatic again.
Gah. I'm not saying 24,000 people will show up at once, I'm saying that if you put 24,000 people through a funnel that only allows 15,000 through per hour, that's over an hour and a half to handle them all. Traffic analysis also indicates that congested pathways do not exhibit laminar flow, so once the station hits (or possibly even just approaches) peak occupancy it will find itself at reduced operational capacity.
IOW, it can only handle 15,000 passengers per hour when it isn't completely full. Once it's completely full it probably can't handle that number as the crowds themselves impede the flow. Unless the crowds spontaneously limit themselves by evenly distributing their arrival times over a two hour (or greater) window (unlikely unless half of them are willing to miss the first pitch), the station will be at its maximum capacity for at least the hour before the game starts, and likely for longer than that.
The outer bounds are punch-out time at work (no earlier than 5 for many people, and often 6pm), and time of the first pitch (which is what, 7:30?). That the station will be at maximum occupancy at least between, say, 6:00 and 7:00 seems entirely predictable.
Wow. I was actually reminded of the subway spongemonkeys from a few years ago, only without the horrible singing. Way to go cheap ads, they're the best.
Another idea for a Metro Peep Video:
Idea: Suminspicious Peep
Scene: a shifty eyed peep sweating profusely as he leaves an overstuffed bookbag on a metro seat
Dialogue: Is that your bag?
Action: Metro Worker alerted. Metro worker puts down western-style whopper and quickly finds shifty peep. Peep in fact forgot bag, which is full of 3 for $20 Tshirts he bought on the national mall.
I see what you're saying fedward. After Peep #1 put Dave on speaker, Mary was supposed to inform him about the interoffice memo giving them early dismissal in order to widen the peak metro capacity window. She just couldn't get the line straight and it didn't make the final cut. And rumor has it that the extras that were going to taunt Peep #1 for standing on the wrong side of the escalator were eaten...
a blooper reel would be a good thing here.
If a peep starts sweating profusely, wouldn't its sugar coating dissolve, leaving a sticky colorful mess on the seat? This could be used to remind people not to bring food and drinks on the metro.
If you were a peep, would you eat yourself?
I know I would. Of course you would have to wait until after you got off the metro though.
The Bad Peep is totally the "Excuse me, is that your bag?" guy.
Both of the office portions were shot at Metro's HQ. I was just there for a meeting last week and recognised the furniture, as well as the view of the National Building Museum from the office window.
did the peeps use their SmarTrips?
I would ride the metro too if I had a private train car and escalators.
IIRC, 15,000 people per hour is the same station capacity as Stadium-Armory. That was the reasoning behind that number.
Umm, it seems to me like WMATA is breaking it’s own no-food-on-the-metro rule! Unless the LIVE peeps don’t count as food – only the DEAD ones do…
I haven't seen the video yet because I'm at work....but if they want to be realistic, they should've had the peeps crammed in the train pretty tightly (easy to do since they're so squishable), with the train unable to move due to a cluster of peeps blocking the door.
Of course, we're talking about peeps riding the metro, so I suppose all notions of realism have gone out the window.
But does anyone notice that when riding the escalator, the peeps are clearly not obeying the "stand right, walk left" rule?
No one likes an escalefter.