Guest tsavo Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Simple question, and I know I should remember, but when was external advertising introduced and what was the first advert? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest transit Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Simple question, and I know I should remember, but when was external advertising introduced and what was the first advert? Great question - i"m sure Busman will be along to give us the correct date shortly! From what i can percieve ,most buses /trams started advertising not long after they were introduced (early 1900"s?) with the obvious extra welcolme revenue generated from the adverts /sponsership which still carries on to this day. Bear in mind , up till the late 70"s ,most adverts had to be hand painted by skilled signwriters , which was a true profesional skill - then came the pasted on paper adverts(which eventually peeled off)followed by the revolution of vinyl+laser printers , which has been virtually wiped out the skill of signwriting. Going back a few years , the most memorable sight as regards advertisingon buses was the idea to have "all-over advert"buses. This happened in Sheffield in 1973, when they painted 3 buses of similar make ,in amazing jazzy paint schemes of local businesses - dont forget about this time,almost every bus in Sheffield was in cream with the three blue bands - and thats what Sheffielders were used to seeing!!(before de-regulation!) , then along came one of these amazing coloured buses -and whow!!! They certainly were eyecatches,and people would wait until the "multi-coloured bus"came along! Remember they were a revolution back then,albeit tame by todays standards, and each one painstakingly designed and hand-painted by skilled craftsmen,during 1973(photos 1,2,3) In 1974 ,when Sheffield Transport merged into South Yorkshire PTE ,not only did we lose the beloved blue and cream colour ,but we had to accept the rather bland "coffee and cream "livery. Pics 4 +5 show the emegence of 1/2 all-over ads , pic 4 showing the Wigfalls ad on the short -lived buscuit and cream livery during 1974, then the Napoleons advert on the "standard" livery in 1977 (again all hand-painted). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest transit Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Great question - i"m sure Busman will be along to give us the correct date shortly! From what i can percieve ,most buses /trams started advertising not long after they were introduced (early 1900"s?) with the obvious extra welcolme revenue generated from the adverts /sponsership which still carries on to this day. Bear in mind , up till the late 70"s ,most adverts had to be hand painted by skilled signwriters , which was a true profesional skill - then came the pasted on paper adverts(which eventually peeled off)followed by the revolution of vinyl+laser printers , which has been virtually wiped out the skill of signwriting. Going back a few years , the most memorable sight as regards advertisingon buses was the idea to have "all-over advert"buses. This happened in Sheffield in 1973, when they painted 3 buses of similar make ,in amazing jazzy paint schemes of local businesses - dont forget about this time,almost every bus in Sheffield was in cream with the three blue bands - and thats what Sheffielders were used to seeing!!(before de-regulation!) , then along came one of these amazing coloured buses -and whow!!! They certainly were eyecatches,and people would wait until the "multi-coloured bus"came along! Remember they were a revolution back then,albeit tame by todays standards, and each one painstakingly designed and hand-painted by skilled craftsmen,during 1973(photos 1,2,3) In 1974 ,when Sheffield Transport merged into South Yorkshire PTE ,not only did we lose the beloved blue and cream colour ,but we had to accept the rather bland "coffee and cream "livery. Pics 4 +5 show the emegence of 1/2 all-over ads , pic 4 showing the Wigfalls ad on the short -lived buscuit and cream livery during 1974, then the Napoleons advert on the "standard" livery in 1977 (again all hand-painted). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveHB Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 HaHaHa ... a loaf of bread on wheels. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bus man Posted August 18, 2008 Share Posted August 18, 2008 quote name='transit' date='Aug 17 2008, 10:18 PM' post='22403'] Great question - i"m sure Busman will be along to give us the correct date shortly! ...................... don’t know if I take that as a complement or not , any way here goes Good Photos I am sorry but I am going to disagree with a comment above adverts appeared on buses/trams very early on , however, Sheffield tramways/ corporation motors didn’t use them till the middle 1950s as the corp didn’t want them to detract from the bus - remember having adverts on even hand painted ones causes damage to the bus paintwork and means if they are involved in an accident especially with overall adds or hand painted you have to get the add reinstated or you have contractual problems., there can also be problems with having to keep buses in as the ad needs changing indeed one of the main operators stopped adds altogether one argument was that they were for a rival product cars Normal Sheffield area adverts that were famous are/were Davys, fletchers, wigfalls, various scrap merchants, brooke shaw, tc harrison and of course the star and telegraph The first overall add in Sheffield was the one illustrated above for The Star it was a blue/while / red livery and was awful , it caused a lot of adverse comments but very few letters in the star - wonder why when the bus first appeared it didn’t have fleet numbers these were added later Now sure when the first overall add appeared I am awaiting data , wrap round add of wigfalls is interesting as the bus is in the early brown livery which was very creamy. A lot of the pte ones were done at WHS at Manchester , the concept of vinyl’s meant they were fairly easy to do but are still expensive and are prone to coming off in the wash . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bus man Posted August 18, 2008 Share Posted August 18, 2008 Hopefully here is an example of a normal non all over advert on the ouside of a bus during the pte era taken in 1979 the last day of the moor and its for the star Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest transit Posted August 18, 2008 Share Posted August 18, 2008 ....not forgetting the infamous "Cowan-Ads" of the 50"s & 60"S , which again were all hand-painted , and carried a Cowan Ad " flag " on the bottom corner , as can be seen on these two pics ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bus man Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Inital research dates the star bus at around 1967 (which would conisde with its 4 year repaint) and the fletchers one not soon after will confirm when I get more info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest transit Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 ....located a colour pic of the "Star" bus - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jiginc Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 ....not forgetting the infamous "Cowan-Ads" of the 50"s & 60"S , which again were all hand-painted , and carried a Cowan Ad " flag " on the bottom corner , as can be seen on these two pics ---- Rather ironic as most trams ended up being scrapped at T Wards Scrap Yard. Not I think this one which looks like it’s at Crich. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest transit Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 Rather ironic as most trams ended up being scrapped at T Wards Scrap Yard. Not I think this one which looks like it’s at Crich. ....yes , many of Sheffields old tramcars (and buses) were scrapped at "Tommy Wards" , which just happened to be directly across the road from the Tinsley Tram Sheds - they even laid a special tramtrack directly into their yard from the depot - when the abolishment of the entire tramway system was decided in 1960- for their final journey. The tram 189 pictured earlier is indeed preserved at Crich along with several others. The Tinsley Tram sheds also still exist although the scrapyard opposite has long gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bus man Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 The star bus photo looks to be a early photo as it didnt have a fleet number on it when it first came out with that livery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest transit Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 The star bus photo looks to be a early photo as it didnt have a fleet number on it when it first came out with that livery ......maybe it did"nt need one busman as the wild paint scheme was eyecatching enough back then amongst the 600 or so buses in the "standard" cream and blue Sheffield Transport livery! They were a real attraction to be able to have a ride on one as a kid , even though they were exactly the same inside as the rest of the batch! The "Star" bus seemed to be THE one to catch! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bus man Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 It got the fleet numbers after the crews complained that they couldnt find it , they read teh fleet number on the board and them looked for the number on the bus so if it didnt have one they couldnt find the bus to take out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest transit Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 ....seem to remember that the "wigfalls" bus (pic 4 in my earlier posting) was the FIRST bus to ENTER SERVICE in the "all-new" South Yorkshire PTE livery back in early 74 - (the wigfalls advert was painted a few weeks later). Next were Fleetline 232 ,and Leopard 55 , albeit the livery only lasted around 4-5 months before the "standard" darker brown was introduced , with new style fleetname branding also. :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now