Lifted from the comments, it turns out that Transport For London is advertising assisted suicide. They seem to be giving it quite a push:
Very on-brand, I’d say. Almost too on-the-nose. I mean, if Londonâs buses and tube network were suddenly to be plastered with huge posters saying END IT ALL NOW, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO, it wouldnât be entirely inexplicable, or entirely dissonant with the customer experience.
It’s perhaps worth noting that Transport For London has a staff training centre, complete with fake station and platform, and “suicide pits,” where employees learn how to manage what are euphemistically referred to as “passengers taken unwell” or “disruptions to the tube service.” Events that occur on average once or twice a week.
In 2019, staff “intervened” in the self-destructive thoughts of 426 customers deemed “visibly in distress,” “up from 252 in the previous year.”
As EmC quips darkly in reply,
Wouldnât it be easier to just not live in London?
Update, via the comments:
The adverts for assisted suicide are now being partially covered, by persons unknown, with posters for a Samaritans helpline.
Update 2:
I donât at the moment have strong feelings on the subject of assisted suicide, in principle, in theory. But the location of the adverts â and their sheer density, dozens of them, one after another â in a place where unhappy people regularly hurl themselves onto the tracks â seems a little, shall we say, tone-deaf. And walking down a tunnel in which every wall is plastered with repeated invitations to extinguish yourself does strike me as a bit of a downer.
Dicentra quotes this,
In 2019, staff âintervenedâ in the self-destructive thoughts of 426 customers deemed âvisibly in distress,â âup from 252 in the previous year.â
And adds,
Sooo, theyâre saying âInstead of jumping on the tracks and disrupting service, why not avail yourself of this lovely clean methodâ?
As someone whoâs experienced first-hand the soul-withering properties of attempts to travel in London â and would not care to repeat it â there is, I think, an unhappy irony. Itâs also worth noting that TfL, supported by Londonâs leftist mayor, Sadiq Khan, has been quite eager to forbid adverts on the tube for foods deemed insufficiently healthy and life-affirming, including artisanal cheeses.
Oh, and this, from Clam:
Not much âdiversityâ in the kill yourself advertising.
I’ll just leave that there, I think.
Consider this an open thread.
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