Outraged train passenger shares disturbing photo of view from window: 'Constant bombardment'

A Toronto GO train rider's photo showed how much commercial advertisements have infiltrated almost every aspect of life. As much as half of the train window was plastered in ads — it was the case for 25% of those upper-car windows.

The point of windows is to connect people visually to the outside world while allowing natural light. Sitting back and passively gazing out of the window is one of the many reasons train travel is more comfortable than driving.

In this case, instead of the CN Tower on the skyline, the seat passenger had a close-up of an ad from Simplii Financial. As the original poster wrote, using "the upper half would have at least allowed us to see out of the window."

While advertisements can alert people to valuable services, they're a major contributor to trash. As the North Wales Management School stated: "The constant bombardment of … and the influential impact of advertisements … leads to unsustainable overconsumption."

The world already generates over 2 billion tons of municipal solid waste annually, with an expectation to go up to 3.4 billion by 2050, according to the World Bank. As all that waste decomposes, it contributes to an overheating planet by producing polluting gases containing methane and carbon.

However, many individuals and organizations are combating this waste concern. Buy Nothing groups online and through the app allow people to connect with others to share services and free items, allowing people to avoid consumption.

You can further participate in a circular economy and get amazing deals through thrifting. Thrift stores — both traditional ones like Goodwill and online ones like Trashie — are ideal places to donate used items and purchase rare, vintage, and new ones at eye-popping discounts. One person kept warm with only $1.52 for an Eddie Bauer jacket that is usually priced at $200.

Most people were not pleased with the ad placement.

One commenter remarked: "It's sort of like the physical version of a really long un-skippable YouTube ad."

Regarding accessibility, another commenter noted the window sign placement may hinder some passengers as it can "limit their ability to hear/see the announcement" for their stop.

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Another person stated: "From a safety perspective, in the event of an incident, people need to be able to see outside the train to make sound time sensitive decisions on whether it is safe to evacuate a train."

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