"Break The Travel Quo"

Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
jebr

jebr

Enthusiastic Transit Rider
AU Supporting Member
Gathering Team Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2012
Messages
4,928
Location
"The Last Great City of the East," St. Paul, MN
I just got a targeted ad from "Break The Travel Quo" on YouTube. Based on what little information is there, it appears to be a new marketing strategy for Amtrak (the "four bags free" is what's making me think that, mixed with the "no airplane mode" suggesting it's a ground transit option.) It looks like the countdown on the main website is to 12:00 AM ET Thursday, September 14.

Website: http://breakthetravelquo.com/

YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4rg2V93_QAbVcaT5n0lq9w/featured

Wondering if it's just an advertising campaign or if some new feature/amenity will be launched with it.
 
I remember taking a survey regarding one of the commercials they used in the video. I liked the alien. :)

Also, it should be, "What if there were an airline..." It drives me batty when people don't use the subjunctive form, especially considering this is a professional ad campaign and not some random blog.

Same for you, Gwen Stefani. I love you, but it should be, "If I were a rich girl," not, "If I was a rich girl..." :p

/end rant
 
It looks just like any number of Southwest Airlines commercials to me. Not saying that's a bad thing, but it's no rebuttal of an airline focused mindset. If anything the last several years of changes to Amtrak and to AGR are a rebuttal to anyone who previously claimed Amtrak wasn't moving closer toward the US airline model.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back to grammar for a minute--

I have heard announcements that:

"Only one piece of luggage are allowed on Amtrak trains" and "New Jersey Transit thank you for your cooperation."

If they can't get subject-verb agreement right, not sure they'll ever get the subtle difference between "was" and "were" :(
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mystic River Dragon said:
Back to grammar for a minute-- I have heard announcements that: "Only one piece of luggage are allowed on Amtrak trains" and "New Jersey Transit thank you for your cooperation." If they can't get subject-verb agreement right, not sure they'll ever get the subtle difference between "was" and "were" :(
Click to expand...
IIRC "[business/Team/Group] thank you for your cooperation." is considered correct grammar in Queen's English. Outside the US it's not uncommon to refer to named groups as if they were plural so if the speaker came from a Commonwealth country they may have been taught to say it that way. I can't think of any excuse for the one/are combination on Amtrak.
 
"Four bags free!" "No airplane mode!" "This is us ignoring the elephant in the room, which is that there's no dignity-shattering security checkpoint to suffer through at our stations!"
 
Devil's Advocate said:
IIRC "[business/Team/Group] thank you for your cooperation." is considered correct grammar in Queen's English. Outside the US it's not uncommon to refer to named groups as if they were plural so if the speaker came from a Commonwealth country they may have been taught to say it that way. I can't think of any excuse for the one/are combination on Amtrak.
Click to expand...
Right. The entity using the plural doesn't bother me as much because there's an implied "[The employees of]" in front of "New Jersey Transit", but the "one piece/are" statement makes me cringe.
 
Grammarobergruppenfuhrer SS Z thanks you for using proper grammar in a world full of people who think "you" is spelled "U".
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Drat--DA and Sarah are right. I should take full responsibility for not thinking that second example through, but I think I'll just blame NJT instead for causing trouble again :p .
 
Ugh ALL of the backgrounds in the pictures of various classes of seats are poorly done CGI fakes! Could they not find ANY locations on the entire Amtrak network where a real background is beautiful enough to put on a website photo?
 
I noticed in the 360 photo that the SSL had no booths. Obvious that the production company used stationary cars with green screens outside each window so a scene can be added later. Average person will not care. Actually the average person will not notice the details which is what the Ad agency is expecting. No asterisk saying four bags free is based on manned stations with baggage service.
 
Lonestar648 said:
I noticed in the 360 photo that the SSL had no booths. Obvious that the production company used stationary cars with green screens outside each window so a scene can be added later. Average person will not care. Actually the average person will not notice the details which is what the Ad agency is expecting. No asterisk saying four bags free is based on manned stations with baggage service.
Click to expand...
I also noticed that in the photo of the Amtrak train, someone must have photo shopped the engine # off the side of the engines.

I did think a few of the commercials were pretty funny.

Robert

Sent from my iPad using Amtrak Forum
 

Latest posts

Back
Top