The MTA Is Now Turning Subway Announcements Into Ads, Starting With Awkwafina

Jan. 16, 2020, 12:48 p.m.

And here's what they sound like.

awkwafina train ad

This morning the MTA rolled out a new voice of the subway system: Awkwafina. The Queens native, who we've been following since her break-out hit "My Vag," has a new show coming out called Nora From Queens, and the announcements are part of an ad buy from Comedy Central to promote the show. So now through January 22nd, she'll be the voice of the Flushing 7 line.

It's the first such ad buy of its kind in the NYC subway system. An MTA spokesperson would not say how much revenue it generated.

The announcements (they really should have let her have 100% creative control over these) range from your standard "next stop" alerts to subway etiquette call-outs ("Hey fellas, stop manspreading") to shade-throwing (“This is Hudson Yards-34th St. Hope you like weird architecture!”). Others include: "Please remember: poles are for hands only!," "Next stop is in Manhattan, hope you brought money!," "This is 69th St., which is definitely, definitely not funny in any way," and, by far the best one: "This is Times Square-42nd Street, where New Yorkers go to relax." You can hear most of the announcements in this video:

Awkwafina just won a Golden Globe (for The Farewell), but becoming a subway announcer is like winning an Oscar in NYC — so few have been granted the privilege of letting straphangers know forskhhxthwhalzlyzzz... The longtime voice of the system was Bloomberg News reporter Charlie Pellett, and in 2018, the MTA's Velina Mitchell was chosen as the new voice to be piped through train cars' garbled speakers.

As for Awkwafina's short stint, the Comedy Central press release calls the announcements part of a "pilot program" featuring celebrity announcers. Sarah Meyer, Chief Customer Officer at MTA New York City Transit, further explained, "We are exploring new and different ways to generate much needed revenue, while also surprising and delighting customers. Our focus will always be to run the trains safely and on time, and if a well-known voice can bring attention to in-car messaging, we are all for it."

As for the reception, there's been a nice New Yorker range of reactions taking us from appreciation to annoyed to critical. Derek Li, a 45 year-old Fresh Meadows resident, told Gothamist, “It sounds really uplifting. I like that voice. Anything that can help people get in a happy mood, I’m all for it."

Some 7 train riders, like 25-year-old Baruch Zamora, have been following Awkafina since she burst out on the YouTube scene. “I feel like as a New Yorker, 'oh that’s my neighbor' like I know her,” the Jackson Heights native said.

But consider this, if companies are shelling out money for audio ads on the train, maybe the speakers will be better maintained so you can hear regular announcements, like the ones telling you why you've been stopped in a tunnel for 25 minutes so you can decide when to start clawing yourself out of the train car.

Additional reporting from Annie Todd.