All UK train travellers are sheep

Visit a major UK train station today and you will see hundreds of sheep on the platforms, up and down the escalators and milling about next to the ticket machines and coffee kiosks.  The stations are inundated with the white woolly new zealand beasts. You cant avoid them.

But these are no ordinary everyday run-of-the-mill sheep. No. These sheep - on posters and leaflets plastered all over our train stations (and now on 30 second TV ads) - are meant to symbolise the ordinary, every day, run-of-the-mill British train passenger who "follows the herd" and is too "dumb " to purchase their tickets in advance, in order to save money on their already-exorbitant train fares.

see tvad here : http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=TA7398

Part of a "campaign" by independent ticketing company The Trainline.com to persuade people to book tickets in advance online (and for them to pocket a £1 booking fee and a £2.50 Credit Card fee in the process), the whole thing smacks of superciliousness, smugness and overwhelming hubris.

British rail passengers have suffered long enough with high prices, complicated fare systems (now thankfully simplified - to a relative degree) and shamefully poor reliability. Now - to add insult to injury - we are all portrayed as dumb idiots unable to make smart choices for ourselves.

If brands wish to make our lives easier by signposting a better option or a deal that is in our interests, they shouldn't label us as foolish for the old behaviour they're trying to change. Besides, if Trainline.com really wish to act in our best interests, then they should direct us to http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com and http://www.virgintrains.co.uk where rail passengers can enjoy no booking fees, no registration, no opt-out travel insurance, no postage fees, easier site navigation and no sheep to push past. Shear heaven.