Observations on ObservingAuthor(s): Julian RoseSource: Log, No. 3 (Fall 2004), p. 126Published by: Anyone CorporationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41765676 .

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Observations on Observing

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's antiterrorism ad

campaign was first introduced in 2002 in response to 9/11 and has been running continuously since . The ads adjure Nem York City subwqy riders to keep a

sharp eye out for any " suspi- cious package or activity" and to

report such sightings immediately to the appropriate authorities , reachable at all hours on the MTA's toll-free terrorism hot- line , The campaign was redou- bled following the pre-election train bombings in Madrid, and continues to build as New York

prepares to host the GOP con- vention and the U.S. presiden- tial election draws near.

Originally located mainly in the trains, the ads, in both

English and Spanish, are now

plastered on station walls and flashed electronically on Metro- card vending machines. They also

IF YOU SEE

SOMETHING,

SOMETHING. If you see a suspicious

package

you or activity on the

youiself. platform

Por^in, package or

don't keep it to youiself.

Tell a cop or an MTA employee. Hotline

Or call a the cop

toll-free Terromm Hotline

at 1-888-NYCrSAFE. i)u Ml calls «ili tv kept conMcnml. l or luv :i.ul

■ flJi Metropolitan Transportation Authority

VHB Transportation Authority

appear on the sides of city buses, which carry the

message into the farthest reaches of the city.

As the ad campaign has

spread, MTA police respond to dozens more calls each month . The MTA now admits that hot - line calls - often necessitating a full investigation complete with bomb-sniffing dogs - are the number one cause of sub- wqy delays.

Staring at the ads during a long subwqy commute, one wonders, what would happen if this message were removed from

its highly charged context and

extrapolated as a more general principle Î The basic directive here - to be aware of one's environment and to comment on whatever one finds noteworthy - is not in itself problematic . Rather, it is the implicit expec- tation of conformity - of seeing only what one is told to look for and spying only what others

expect to hear - that rankles . If these expectations are set aside and only the core message heeded,

the ads can be turned in on themselves. After all, there are only so maro times one can see them before feeling compelled to follow their instructions. Pqy attention, and if you see

something, say something. That's good advice for us at

Log and for anyone else criti- cally engaged with his or her

surroundings. But without a toll-free hotline for reporting observations, will aryone listen Î -Julian Rose

126

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