Get a Better Job

This ad is an attention getter for sure. Big bold yellow letters screaming at you to get a better job. The accompanying advertising is tuttleagency.com, a job placement agency or in their terms- a professional staffing service. Either way, you'll note that this taxi is a mini-van, a Toyota Sienna LE to be exact. In the last few years a variety of non-standard vehicles have begun to hit New York's streets as cabs including Toyota and Nissan mini-vans.
The large hulking building behind it is the James A Farley building- the main Post Office, on 33rd Street. Like NYC itself, this Post Office is open 24/7, only closing for a few select holidays. The building is part of a plan to be converted into a train station called Moynihan Station to serve as a replacement for the ugly/depressing/maze like/dungeon Penn Station across the street.

Feel Like a Woman!

This one is for legendary designer Diane von Furstenberg with some big pouty lips encouraging you to "feel like a woman". Diane is known for her wrap dresses and for being married to mogul Barry Diller (of ugly building fame).

Sunday Night Baseball

This is the future of taxi top advertising- electronic ads. Unfortunately they are ugly! Many of them flash updated sports scores in between ads which is pretty good if you want to know but not so good if you Tivo'ed the game and haven't watched it yet.Here you can see the ad cycles through to another screen advertising ESPN's Sunday night baseball game. Since it is baseball's opening day today for some teams, I thought this would be the perfect shot for today. This is in front of the Verizon building on 42nd and 6th.

Miami Vice

This is an older ad (newer ads coming soon- promise!) for the Miami Vice movie starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell. Movie ads are a popular category of taxi top advertisement- you'll see plenty more on these pages.

106.7 Lite FM Flowers

Here's a taxi ad for local radio station 106.7 Lite FM. LiteFM plays "the best variety of yesterday and today". They play the type of mellow adult contemporary music you might hear in a doctor's office or waiting room of some sort. This cab is parked on Essex Street in the Lower East Side in front of a flower shop and a cafe.

Mingle with the Eurocrats

Here's an ad for Delta Airline's non-stop service to Brussels, encouraging you to "mingle with the eurocrats". This cab is stopped at the corner of 23rd Street and 6th Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood. Note the taxi in the foreground without the ad on top.

The light on top of the taxi tells you if it's available, full, or off duty. No light means full; if both the outer two "off-duty" lights and middle light are both on, it means off-duty, and if the middle light only is on (where the taxi id # is) then raise your arm to hail it cause it's available. Despite what you see in the movies, yelling "taxi" at the cab will almost never make it stop unless you have a super loud voice and there's no other street noise- which is rare. Off duty cabs will sometimes take you if you are heading in the same direction they are- usually toward their depot.

Ni Hao, Beijing

Here's another taxi ad from Continental Airlines with the same "the most international destinations" theme as the last one. This one has a Beijing line at the bottom. Note the annoyed pedestrians waiting for this cab to get out of the crosswalk!

Shalom Tel Aviv

This taxi ad is for Continental Airlines, advertising that they have "the most international destinations". Note the ubiquitous Duane Reade drugstore in the background and the multitude of free newspaper boxes in the foreground. Airline ads are a popular category of taxi ads and Continental's campaign has a bunch of different ones with a location specific second line- in this case "Shalom, Tel Aviv". Shalom is hello in Hebrew (it can also mean goodbye or peace).

Low Hospital Copays!

This taxi is at the dead-end at the eastern edge of 72nd Street, just a few doors down from where the plane hit the building last fall. The ad is for elderplan.org which is some sort of prescription drug and healthcare plan for older folks. The word low is huge compared to the rest of the writing. This street has a roundabout at the end making it easy for the cab to make a u-turn and a nice little park at the end overlooking the river.

Hilton Hotels Cobblestone

This taxi is on a cobblestone street in the Meatpacking District with a Hilton family of hotels ad stating "Try waving at someone who's not a cab driver". It's a pretty good ad since it's clearly designed specifically for taxi roof market. The colors are sharp but the branding is a bit small.

Hooters Mega Store

Hooters ad on a yellow cab in front of Gristedes Mega Store. The ad is specific to Hooters' one location in New York- in midtown on 56th and Broadway. Hooters is best known for their, uh, famous wings. I wonder if anyone ever got into this taxi and then decided to actually go to Hooters based solely, or even subliminally, on the advertisement.

Avenue Q Empire State Building

Ad for Avenue Q, the Broadway musical, atop a taxi in front of Madison Square Park with world famous Empire State Building in the background. Wake up happy!