Occupied, D.C.: The military-industrial complex invades the capital’s subway system

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Occupied, D.C.
The military-industrial complex invades the capital’s subway system.

By Stephanie Westbrook


As a visitor to our nation’s capital, it’s disconcerting to step off a Metro train and find yourself face-to-face with an F-35 fighter jet. Washington D.C.’s subway system, the second busiest in the country, hosts full-color backlit billboards for some of the most deadly—and expensive—weapons systems ever produced.

The ads for Lockheed Martin (the world’s largest arms merchant), Goodrich, KBR, AGI, BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman adorn Metro stations throughout the D.C. metropolitan area. But not surprisingly, the ads are most heavily concentrated at Pentagon City and near government offices at the Federal Center and Capitol South stations. The ads clearly aim to influence key decision-makers, but they also sell to the public the concept that only superior military prowess can protect us from a hostile world.

The billboards range from explicit ads for attack helicopters and combat vehicles to more subtle ads for companies like little-known DRS, owned by Italian weapons maker Finmeccanica and ranked 26 among the top 100 Pentagon contractors. Some are for Dell, which sells “rugged” computers designed to meet Defense Department specifications for military use.

Northrop Grumman’s marketing approach in the Capitol South Metro station, the closest to Congress, is an all-out assault on the visual senses. The station is festooned by the country’s third-largest military contractor. Apparently the usual ad space along tracks proved insufficient, so Northrop Grumman placed ads on all four sides of special ad-space columns installed near the turnstiles, on banners strung up along the railings upstairs, and on the floor just before the escalators. CBS Outdoor, which manages the ad space in D.C. Metro stations, claims on its website that “Capitol Hill Station Domination is an impactful way to get your message in front of the Congress and decision-makers in D.C.” ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6009/occupied_d.c

[Captain Hilts]

1. The Capitol South stop has them all the time. The Littoral Combat ship ads were

all over Woodly Park-Zoo, and ads for a company that converts old US Navy ships for sale to foreign navies has ads plastered EVERYWHERE.

You used to get ads for cruise missiles on the radio during Redskins games. Really.

[aikoaiko]

2. A poster of a fighter jet disconcerting? I had some plastered on my wall when I was a kid

:shrug: