Huge advertising currently to be seen at Oxford Circus station has to be a contender for the longest advert ever featured on London’s tube system! Its a non stop advert from one end of the station platform to the other on the northbound Victoria line. Its on the offside tunnel wall and the train featured on the advert stretches as far as the eye can see! The total length of the advert is 130 metres. There’s also an endless assortment of pots and pans and other kitchen utensils that populate every window on the train in the advert.
Ecover, a Belgian company founded in 1979, is a famous brand that started out with a focus on the environment. Its product range has expanded considerably these have has been popular amongst those who want to see far less use of the chemicals used in washing liquids, powders, tablets as well as other cleansers and also a newer range of personal products. Noted for a series of interesting and even controversial advertising, Ecover have now come up with a new format of advertising for the London Underground!
The type of advert in its various forms that can be seen at London’s tube stations – whether it be those for iPhone, Nike and many others – is known as ‘cross-track’ advertising. Its a term which is quite explanatory. There’s no doubt many of the other huge advertising campaigns on the tube simply pale into insignificance when they are compared to the latest Ecover advert – which stretches for 130 metres without a break!
No doubt it will inspire others to follow with further examples of continuous advertising.
As far as the eye can see! The extremely long (130meters) Ecover advert has been up for a week at Oxford Circus tube station.
The full text on the Ecover advert is as follows:
If we can fit 67,867 plates, 27,641 spoons, 22,065 forks, 25,431 knives, 14,449 teaspoons, 33,935 bowls, 25,803 side plates, 48,431 mugs, 44,056 glasses, 254 potato peelers, 18,076 wine glasses, 11,669 pans, 10,435 trays, 17,353 spatulas, 10,636 pots, 9,060 chopping boards, 6,883 colanders, 10,951 sieves, 8,288 cheese graters, 187 chopsticks, 9,049 whisks, 6,664 ladles, 449 muffin trays, 13 butter dishes and one garlic press on this train, you can fit another plate in your dishwasher.
The advertising wasn’t for the train, and not for the utensils either! It was actually clever publicity for the company’s new dishwasher tablets. These All-in-one Power Dishwasher Tablets are packed in a way to reduce the bulk, nor do these new tablets have a plastic coating of any sort. Elements of this latest Ecover advertising can also be seen in smaller form inside some of London’s tube trains and also in shops and billboards.
Its quite curious there’s just the one garlic press on the train! Turn that on its side (or upside down) and there’s no doubt it mimics a tube train’s master controller key! One can easily imagine the garlic press being the actual master controller key used to unlock that particular train featured in the Ecover advert! I don’t think Ecover would have thought of it that way, nevertheless its a brilliant idea! As for the master controller key (sorry, garlic press) needing a wash – that can only be anyone’s guess why that is! As far as I know none of the London Underground tube stock master controller keys ever got washed. A good few acquired a polished appearance through intensive use, and even so some also got quite rusty LOL!
Film taken of most of the advert – within the one minute gap between trains! The train reached the garlic press bit in perfect time! Video by the author.
The advert for Ecover was created by T&P and Uncommon Creative Studio – and the teams behind the advert have received a lot of praise. In my personal view its certainly very well done – and the fact it uses a train as the advert’s centrepiece makes it even more so! Its a shame it wasn’t a Victoria line train that was depicted but then again, it wasn’t any real railway train that was illustrated either (even though elements from the Desiro UK range of trains were used) because the train’s windows had to be optimised in order to show the various kitchen utensils on display. And if they had done that with the 2009 tube stock – well that would have amounted to sacrilege! No wonder a generic train design was used.
Film taken of the top (north) end of the advert – plus 2009 tube stock for Walthamstow arriving at the station. Video by the author.
One intriguing aspect of the Ecover advert is it seems well timed in terms of London’s new IKEA store – whose premises are right outside the tube entrances – and its adverts Oxford Circus tube station currently features along its walls and lengthy passageways. Its probably not intentional however the Ecover advert will have captured the attention of those wishing to use the new IKEA store opening today May 1st 2025!
The draw of the store! The IKEA advertising announcing the new store’s opening – these adverts are located in most of the station’s corridors and escalator areas. Its good timing for the many other companies who currently also have adverts at Oxford Circus station!
This Ecover advert is certainly unique because the artwork also utilises the panels the station’s roundels are to be found – something that is almost never done and with previous adverts was limited to just one or two sections of the tunnel wall – whereas this is every single section of the tunnel wall involved.
It seems this type of advertising is a new move for TfL. In terms of the size and scope its no doubt a huge revenue earner for TfL – apart from complete station renamings such as Burberry Street, Green Planet, Fold Street etc – some of which have irritated quite a few passengers because the station names get changed.
The Ecover advert is far more substantial than anything I have seen at Oxford Circus or elsewhere – and it could be the start of a new trend of advertising on the tube system.
London Rail’s ‘Tube Mapper’ style photograph of the Ecover advert!
In regards to the filming shown above – the intensive frequency of the Victoria line and a very crowded tube platform means its not quite so easy to video the advert’s entire length. I did in fact do it in one complete go on a practically empty platform – yet it looked boring. Those done with the trains departing or arriving – and at least some people visible – were the far more interesting videos!
The team behind the creation of the Ecover advert. Linkedin.