Last month, TriMet debuted an advertising campaign that officials said was intended to be a light and humorous way of reminding passengers they need to pay to ride the public transit system.

The ads debuted Oct. 13, more than a week before the transit agency announced an added emphasis on enforcing fares on the tri-county bus and rail service with the addition of nine new full-time fare enforcement officers.

One ad featured a green outline of a martini glass with the text, “It’s like that guy who never chips in for drinks,” with the campaign slogan, “Pay your share. Pay your fare” at the bottom of the poster. Another said, “It’s like that guy who eats the pizza but doesn’t help move,” with a slice of pepperoni pizza the middle of the poster.

But the ads were not well - received, even, it seems, by at least one member of TriMet’s board. And less than a month after they arrived, the ads quietly were scrubbed from buses, trains and the agency’s website.

The marketing effort came up Wednesday at the tail end of a morning board meeting in which officials discussed the agency’s long-term financial strategy and the upcoming 2020 Metro government-led transportation bond.

Ozzie Gonzalez, an architect and board member who is also running for mayor of Portland, said he’d heard from a lot of people who questioned what TriMet was trying to accomplish with the ads.

Gonzalez described the feedback he’d received as “quite unfortunate” and said the ad’s “collateral” damage meant it would be used to “further the confusion” of why the agency is focusing so much on fare evasion.

“It was hard for me to say, ‘Oh, I totally see what we’re doing,’” Gonzalez said.

Bernie Bottomly, TriMet’s executive director of government affairs, said the agency put the ads up online and on buses or MAX trains before the new fare officers were on board to make sure riders weren’t surprised.

“It was intended to have some humor to it,” Bottomly said of the ads, “The problem with humor is when it works, it works great. When it doesn’t work, it really doesn’t work.”

Bottomly said the ads were pulled “as soon as we got the negative feedback.” A public records request for all the images involved in the campaign was still being processed Wednesday, but several pictures circulated on Twitter last month.

Wow, these new @trimet “pay your fare” ads elicit privilege and abundance when this crackdown is happening on the backs of people who probably can’t afford pizza or drinks. Classically unaware.



Way to read the room, @trimet. pic.twitter.com/bkjvTx2iEa — Cole Merkel (@colemerkel) October 31, 2019

TriMet said it worked with Portland-based firm, HMH, on the $17,895 campaign.

Roberta Altstadt, a TriMet spokeswoman, confirmed the campaign was intended to be a “friendly reminder” that fares are required on TriMet.

She said the ads were all taken down by about Nov. 8. TriMet is trying to explore other ways to “help riders remember to pay their fare,” she said, and to tap the agency’s digital Hop Fastpass cards before boarding trains or buses. Altstadt said the transit agency is spending an additional $40,000 from the overall effort it’s branded “Fare is Fair” on promoting its low-income fare program and other initiatives.

The humorous ads that missed the mark, for some, was just the latest aspect of the ongoing fare enforcement effort to garner criticism, coming on the heels of a Twitter backlash over its added fare enforcement officers and the tone of its messaging, which intimated that riders care deeply about whether or not other passengers pay their fares, a statement that isn’t supported by the agency’s own ridership surveys.

Last week, the Street Roots newspaper tweeted that one of its vendors, Mark Rodriguez, was cited for not paying his fare despite having money on his Hop card to do so.

The vendor said he was given a $175 fine.

Street Roots tweeted: “Mark said he’s going to fight the ticket. It means time and emotional labor Mark cannot afford. But he said he feels like he’s been profiled. ‘I am not guilty. I bought the bus pass!’”

Altstadt said the $175 figure is standard but that riders could contest the citation and may qualify for a reduced fine, community service or a hearing to dispute the charge. If the infraction is Rodriguez’s first for fare evasion, he would qualify for a reduced fine of $75.

She added that Rodriguez was cited by an employee who had been performing fare checks for years, not one of the nine new officers added in recent weeks.

“While TriMet has alerted riders to the increased fare checks, all fare inspectors and staff that conduct code enforcement have been issuing warnings and citations, while also educating riders about Hop. In Mr. Rodriguez case, while he initially tapped for his trip, his citation came more than 2 and ½ hours after that tap,” she said.

Kathy Wai, another TriMet board member, separately brought up the fare enforcement discussion earlier in the meeting.

“I also want us to be cautious about who we’re othering,” she said, adding that there is a “culture of fear” among people who don’t have documentation of legal citizenship or who might be experiencing homelessness, that they may be singled out on transit.

“Quite frankly, people and communities are scared right now to take transit,” she said, despite TriMet’s forceful comments and her own attempts to explicitly clarify to immigrant groups that the agency does not cooperate with ICE.

Doug Kelsey, TriMet’s general manager, said he would continue to make the agency’s stance that it does not work or cooperate with federal immigration officials “unwaveringly clear.”

UPDATE: This post was updated with the creative agency’s name and the cost of the ad campaign.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen

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