I see this every day on my way into London at Stratford Station and I've finally had to ask the question; home of a Premier League football club and one of the largest shopping centres in the country in addition to a university and popular ABBA entertainment venue so why has an advert for a film that came out 2,386 days ago (6 years and 6 months ago) that's rated 26% on rotten tomatoes, still in a prime advertising location?

by Illmindofhopkins

34 comments

  1. Man, 26% is harsh. It’s not a masterpiece but it’s perfectly watchable. 

  4. That poster is still there? I remember it there in 2023 😂

  5. The square format has been discontinued for outdoor posters, so they don’t sell the inventory anymore – they just haven’t taken down the old frame yet.

  6. Maybe the location code fell off a database so the company which should be filling it isn’t even aware it’s there.

  7. I see that poster in many stations. I think its honestly because no one has bothered to buy the spot. So theres nothing to replace it with. I remember in Croydon theres a giant billboard for a MP campaign for an election that happened around 3+ years ago. Everyone’s been buying online ads and digital billboards instead.

  8. Some years back I put a few quid into tube ads.

    The process is extremely sloppy (or was at the time).
    Basically someone from global spams their entire contact book with a list of available placements that aren’t part of big “takeover” buys. The “avails” are copied from a spread sheet.

    Movies tends to have decent budgets for these. If I were to guess, this was part of a bulk buy of adspace (presumably at stations with nearby cinemas) and when that came to an end, a copy and paste error missed the line of the spreadsheet that included this placement and nobody ever noticed.

  9. Beforemath you couldn’t tell us how long it’s been or what % it scored on rotten-tomatoes

  10. This poster is also at West Croydon Station lol – I’m sorry but simply WHO has heard of this film.

  11. Theres also a poster for this movie in West Croydon station thats been there for 6+ years.

  12. There used to be a huge billboard London bound out of Stratford that had a poster of the Top Hat West End revival… ended up staying for several years and was up longer than the production was on! I think of it whenever I see that Aftermath poster 😂

  14. This is what’s called an overstay. If nobody else buys the placement, whatever was last in there will just stay there. As far as I’m aware, nobody makes posters that specific size or dimensions any more, hence the massive overstay. I hope loads more people saw this film as a result. It’ll probably be there until they take the frame down.

  15. One of my local pubs had an advert for Hogs of War on the Playstation for 20 years…

  16. There are several buses whose entire upper floors are entirely plastered with Don’t Look Up posters, it’s oddly comforting sometimes

  17. It has been left up to acknowledge the last time the fans of that particular Premier League football club felt any shred of optimism. The film’s Rotten Tomatoes rating corresponds with the win rate of the that team’s current manager.

  18. Seeing this poster is my favourite part of my commute. I’ll be sad to see it go, whatever the reason!

  20. There’s one at West Croydon too that I’m confused that it’s still there

  21. The equivalent in North West London for about a decade was a poster advertising the greatest hits album of the Manic Street Preachers, there was one near Staples Corner from the early 2000s well into the early 2010s. I remember feeling a bit sad when it finally went, like a part of my childhood was gone.

  23. Sutton station had an advert up for a special edition Mini for 12 years

  24. I think the reason is there’s too much security in place to nick it. Seemingly.

  25. It was put up by decaux. Global inherited it from them and haven’t changed it because it’s in a size they don’t sell.

  26. I thought you were doing some artsy thing with the pantograph reflection.

  27. On Disney+ if you wanna see it. I haven’t yet but saw it there last night when scrolling.😉

  28. Fans of Alexander Skarsgård are working to get a blue plaque for it.

  29. 26% on Rotten Tomatoes? I liked the film, but perhaps that’s because I’d happily sit through Keira Knightly reading the phone book

  31. We have the exact same poster in West Croydon station and it’s become an inside joke around here. 7 years ago and it’s still there 😂

  33. There is a BT advert that is still up on the Kings Cross Thameslink station platform. That platform is no longer in use (it closed in 2007) and was replaced by St Pancreas but you can still see the billboard clearly 18 years later. So this sort of thing can happen from time to time depending on the location. 

    Clearly this advert, for whatever reason, has been overlooked. 

  34. There was a poster at the far end of Poplar DLR station with Sara Cox advertising some breast cancer awareness day that was up for like ten years after the event took place. I always figured that they stopped selling that particular spot because it was past the end of how long most of the trains going through so it had super low visibility.

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