Greater Glasgow

First Launches Innovative Advertising Campaign to Tackle Anti-Social Behaviour on Buses

First is launching a campaign to encourage people to be more considerate to one another when using First buses in the UK.

Passenger Focus has backed the campaign, titled 'It's your bus. Respect it.', which will involve on bus advertising on each of First's 9,000 buses across its 14 bus operating companies in 40 towns in the UK.

The on-bus advertising will include a series of quirky characters, each representing a major customer complaint, such as the playing of loud music, or eating hot food on buses. The cool, comedy images, which are sure to be popular with young people, will also be put on the backs of tickets to encourage customers to show more consideration to fellow passengers.

Leon Daniels, Customer Service and Communications Director for First UK Bus said: "By using an innovative approach to a serious problem, First believes it can make a notable difference to issues which cause a real headache for customers.'

The six characters, and the issues they are designed to tackle, are:

Litter Lads, a disgruntled newspaper and a drinks can urging customers to remove their own litter.
MP3 Player, An angry MP3 player asking customers to turn their music down.
Liquid Ladies, Two attractive drinks containers asking customers to drink off bus.
Mr Chips, A bag of unhappy chips urging people not to eat on buses.
Soiled Seat, A bus seat with an issue with people who put their feet on seats.
Helpful Bus, A helpful bus who is encouraging people to get on and off buses safely.

Leon Daniels continued: "Our customers are regularly telling us, through surveys or our customer complaints processes, that these are the six anti-social issues that concern them the most when travelling on our buses.

"Therefore we are happy to listen to these customer views and to do something positively about them by encouraging everyone to show a bit of consideration to their fellow passengers.

"The use of cool comedy figures will definitely make an impact and should help to communicate this serious message to our millions of passengers across the UK from Aberdeen to Cornwall, from Swansea to Norwich.'

The campaign has been welcomed by Passenger Focus, who see the move as a positive one which will ultimately encourage more people to travel by bus.

David Sidebottom, of Passenger Focus, said: "Passenger Focus is happy to support this innovative new campaign to tackle anti-social behaviour on buses.

"In our new role as the representative of bus passengers, we are becoming aware that issues such as eating smelly food and people playing their music too loud are a real concern to bus users.

"First's attempt to tackle these issues should be applauded and will help to encourage more people to use the bus in future.'