‘Peak capitalism’: Twitterati divided on the naming of Mumbai metro stations after brands

Companies can buy the semi-branding rights to some Mumbai metro stations which allows them to prefix their brand names to the station’s name.

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In the world of constant advertising, it is not uncommon to see everything from billboards to buses being plastered with ads. Taking this idea of perennial branding one step further, many government agencies have extended their advertising revenue-raising model by allowing the companies to pre-fix their brand names onto those of metro stations.

On Sunday, a Twitter user @shlokafc shared a photo showing route charts inside the Mumbai metro with names like LIC Andheri, Medimax Azad Nagar, etc, instead of simply mentioning the station’s name without that of the sponsor. The photo was captioned ‘peak capitalism’ by the user.

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In the comments, many people noted that allowing stations to be named after brands is a successful strategy by the government to raise money and keep public transport affordable. While some people expressed their discomfort with the commercialisation of tax-funded projects like public transport.

peak capitalism. pic.twitter.com/wX85LelMFK

— Shlok (@shlokafc) May 7, 2023

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Echoing the former sentiment, a Twitter user wrote, “In my view good way for the government to fund infrastructure projects. they have taken a cue from US where stadiums are names are sponsored by corporates”.

Another person wrote, “This is sooo funny. Additionally, they also play the specific sponsor ads when the said station arrives. Hearing medimix jingle Azad nagar had me cringing so hard”.

A Twitter user commented, “Reminds of that one quote from Fight Club- “When deep space exploration ramps up, it’ll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks”. Although, I see nothing wrong w it.”.

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