The MTA Thanks You For Snitching

The MTA is releasing television spots reminding people to say something if they see something:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 5-year-old anti-terror tagline, “If You See Something, Say Something,” is going prime time today.

The MTA is spending $3 million of security funds to air the slogan in more than 4,000 television spots and run 84 ads in 11 regional newspaper over the next four and a half months. The 10-second spots will be broadcast during news programs on local New York City television stations, the agency announced yesterday.

The television advertisements, which will air in English and Spanish, are the fifth generation of the “If You See Something, Say Something” safety campaign.

In the 10-second spot that begins airing today, a hoarse, male voice narrates: “Last year, 1,944 New Yorkers saw something, and said something.” The words are displayed in royal blue over a white background as he reads. “Thank you, for keeping your eyes and ears open,” the voice says.

But did you also know that the phrase is being licensed for use in other skittish cities around the globe? I feel like Giuliani might call that “ghoulish”:

In 2002, the anti-terror advertisements were simple, plain-text messages posted on subway cars, bus kiosks, and train platforms. After the Madrid subway bombings in 2003, the MTA rolled out more eye-catching photographs of suspicious packages on subway cars. The television and newspaper advertisements mark the largest expansion to date of the anti-terror advertising campaign.

The catchy slogan, which among transit-riding New Yorkers rivals “Just Do It” and “Priceless” as a well-known, oft-quoted motto, was created after the attacks of September 11, 2001, by the chairman and CEO of the advertising firm Korey Kay & Partners, Allen Kay. It was adopted as the MTA’s official safety slogan in 2002. “It took time for everyone to buy into it,” Mr. Kay, whose firm also came up with the Port Authority’s slogan, “Look What We’re Doing,” said in an interview. “The MTA had some concerns that it might scare people that a disaster could happen, but research found that it was quite the opposite, that the police and the MTA can’t be everywhere, so it was smart to enlist the aid of everybody.”

The trademarked phrase has been licensed for use in dozens of transit systems across the globe to purvey an anti-terror message. The largest banner displaying the slogan hangs in a train station in Perth, Australia, Mr. Kay said.