2009/10: Impress. Inspire. Intoxicate.
Six Lives, Roll Out!
Before our Speak Good English Movement buses can start trawling the streets to let everyone know about Six Lives and show off our colourful bubbles, we needed to make sure the colours on the bus ads were the right colours.
So on a sweltering hot Tuesday afternoon, Jeanine and I (Aloy didn’t come along because it was “too hot”) dragged ourselves out of our comfortably cool air conditioned office and headed down to the Bedok North Bus Depot.
That’s ours! – no, not the dog.
Despite the heat, we made sure to check every side of the bus. ?We must have circled the bus at least 5 times over (we were that excited).
Left – Impress Inspire Intoxicate!
Right – Six Lives. One Language.
Front and back. Do you take the no. 12?We were later met by Wendy and her colleague from the production department of Moove Media, the people behind the bus ads. And since we were waiting for our rep from the advertising agency to arrive, Wendy offered to take us on a mini-tour to see how these ads, which are actually very large pieces of stickers, get onto the buses.
After walking through an empty canteen and a narrow walkway, we came to the back area where all the maintenance work is carried out.
A secret peek at the bus ads factory.
A bus waiting to be dressed and rolls of “stickers” waiting to be pasted onto the buses.
We entered the enclosed area and manoeuvred our way through the tools on the ground, old scraps of what looked like old ads and well-worn ladders on wheels, to get a close up view of the men at work.
They use a penknife to “burst the bubbles”…
…and then use hot air to soften the sticker and stretch it to make sure all the little cracks and crevices are covered.
All that tedious work got us wondering: have there been any mistakes putting up the bus ads?
Wendy told us that it has been good so far. It also helps that all the stickers are carefully and accurately labeled. She also explained that the correct terms for the left side of the bus is “near side” and the right, “far side”.
As of now, the bus ads have been approved and are already on the streets!
Remember to look out for our Six Lives buses and who knows, you might just be sitting in one on your way to school or work. (:
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