Aren’t the LNER 80Xs less than five years old?
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LNER launching a mascot
- Thread starter MrJeeves
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Aren’t the LNER 80Xs less than five years old?
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RailUK Forums
Yes, but they're awful.
Matches another LNER press pic from 2019...
Seems to match this pic on RailSmartr too
Genuinely look the same as the seats on the Azumas to me.
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
I’m glad you appreciated itJust spotted this. As one liners go, it’s a good one! And uncannily accurate.
That's not what the ones in the ads look like.
The 800s are cracking trains.
RollingStock19
Member
LNER reminds me of British Airways, A once-loved British brand that still trades on its name and past reputation....
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Was it once loved? None of us were around when the original LNER was. I think a lot of people just love to romanticise the past, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s often not based on own experience.
occone
Member
My take is that anything that tries to encourage more people to take the train is a good thing and if the general public think that trains are old and manky, they won't even consider it. The advert is entirely there to showcase their newish trains to people - without them falling asleep as trains are fantastically boring things to most people.
The actual content of the advert is that it shows the modern looking seats (yes, I know they are uncomfortable, but they do look decent), shows the legroom at the tables, and shows how different people use the train (some sleeping, some with partners, some in groups, families, business trips). The whole point is the viewer gets to see how they might use the train, and the mascot is just for attention - look at us all talking about it!
Let's just say we are not the target market; if we were they'd make something like a Class 800 Azuma faults and failures video with Paul Tyreman (which I would welcome).
The actual content of the advert is that it shows the modern looking seats (yes, I know they are uncomfortable, but they do look decent), shows the legroom at the tables, and shows how different people use the train (some sleeping, some with partners, some in groups, families, business trips). The whole point is the viewer gets to see how they might use the train, and the mascot is just for attention - look at us all talking about it!
Let's just say we are not the target market; if we were they'd make something like a Class 800 Azuma faults and failures video with Paul Tyreman (which I would welcome).
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Thanks to him, I can never look at a window again without hearing “Don’t strike it in the middle, as the glass will just flex.”
ScottGallagher
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It's inoffensive enough but the Fatboy Slim track and the fact the puppet character just looks like she's time travelled back from an all nighter with Bananarama in 1986 , is just strange.
Sealink
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And here's Eleanor ... (Lner, geddi!t?)
British Airways was a very well liked company before your time, but then again most airlines were. It was quite a bit more glamorous in the 80s and 90s! This is a company which flew Concorde.
Looks the same, definitely an 800/801 with the heater location. The seats look about right though there is an odd grey lump on the back.
The CAF order wouldn't be progressed enough to have a interior mockup yet.
Just looking closer at these the seats are certainly different. Just some differences:
- The backs of the seats seem a darker grey
- The top part of the seat back is more pronounced and squarer in shape with a notable join just above the seat tray. It's almost as they part has been added to the existing seat.
- Borth the arm rest and tray have a different hinge design
In reality do you really think Joe Public who the advert is aimed at are going to notice the slight offence in the seat in the advert to what’s actually on the Azuma? I reckon not.
No. It's more curiosity as to why the seat's are different. Is there a train somewhere with updated versions being tested for example?
More likely this is just a studio based mock-up of a carriage using some available seating. What's available may not represent the active seating in use.
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
I mean LNER, not BA.
lordbusiness
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As a student of military history I always think the N of the LNER rather germanic and oddly similar to the divisional sign of a rather infamous SS Panzer Division.
Also simillar to the symbol used by Gen Zers (and has been seen apparently as a tattoo!)
Also simillar to the symbol used by Gen Zers (and has been seen apparently as a tattoo!)
The senior management at LNER are still firmly in Virgin mode. I'd hoped that the company would have been run more like East Coast, but only two years of Virgin brainwashing was all it took.
The mascot is pretty inoffensive, but if they were serious about getting their brand out there, then they could make a start by applying the LNER logo to each and every one of their anonymous white carriages.
The mascot is pretty inoffensive, but if they were serious about getting their brand out there, then they could make a start by applying the LNER logo to each and every one of their anonymous white carriages.
Mallard was probably the equivalent of Concorde during the 1930s, when there were few motor cars, no motorways and virtually no commercial air traffic.
That’s the romantic and historical ethos the modern brand is intended to evoke. Whether the old LNER was *actually* any good or not is neither here nor there and, and as you say, hardly anybody alive today knows for sure. Hence why it’s a pretty effective piece of marketing.
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LNER had been running the ‘I am…doing it all on an LNER train’ ad campaign with the lady in a seat transitioning through different scenarios for most of the previous year or two. This didn’t seem to attract half as much criticism as demonstrated in this thread. Is this just because this campaign attempts at a bit of fun?
dk1
Veteran Member
Aww she did make me smile. I’m sure others will warm to her.
I noticed this too. I think it's probably designed because they know the more upright, cheaper seat with thinner cushions which is actually on their trains is much less appealing for those features. These look like they'll be more comfortable - and after all the central claim here is that train travel is better because it's convenient and pleasant. This marketing campaign is primarily about quality, not low prices, so they need to embellish a bit. It's not new for LNER to do this either - in the past the marketing team have used the IC225 seats inside a digital clone of an Azuma to focus on quality.Noticed this advert features different seats to what we normally see on LNER trains. Sign of things to come, or editorial decision?
I've attached a few pics showing what I mean, which clearly depict a different model of seat.
There's nothing wrong with cost-effective, honest marketing.
Some people have managed to get offended by it, as this tweet shows.
dk1
Veteran Member
Some people have managed to get offended by it, as this tweet shows.
Getting offended & complaining is terrific for attention. All publicity is good publicity as they say.
They do look poor in reality, and that's partly because they are. If they had the same cushions on them that Transport for Wales bought they'd have fewer "hard" areas and more rounded lines, just like the ones in the set for the ad do, although those frames are clearly differently-shaped.
Some people have managed to get offended by it, as this tweet shows.
That seems ridiculous, not to mention pretty ignorant. For a start, who is to say it’s portraying a white girl, as opposed to (say) lighter skinned mixed race?
Part of the point of using a glove puppet type character is to move away from the human characteristics many get so exercised about these days.
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