Forsman & Bodenfors' Clever Folding Ad Perfectly Illustrates Why You Should Take the Bus

Forsman & Bodenfors thanks people for travelling together in folding ad for Swedish public transport company Västtrafik.

“Thank you for your patience in traffic. It gets crowded when we’re not travelling together” states Västtrafik in a new print campaign showing a massive traffic jam. But when you fold the ad, the copy transforms into the brand tagline ”Thank you for travelling together”. And the cars disappear, leaving a bus on an empty street. 

Västtrafik is the public transport provider in Gothenburg, Sweden. The city is currently undergoing an intense development phase. The folding ad is part of an integrated campaign revolving around congestion and queues, commenting the major rebuilding.

"The traffic situation will be heavily affected by the building projects. But choosing public transport really helps. If all the passengers in a bus would instead drive alone in their cars, they would create a queue of hundreds of meters", said Lars Backström, CEO of Västtrafik. 

In the coming 20 years, the city’s population will grow by about 30 percent. The construction period will entail major challenges, including congested roads and heavy queues in rush hour. Västtrafik wants to tell people about the problems and show that public transport is part of the solution.

"To physically fold the cars away shows the benefit of the bus in an almost superfluous way. There are room for many cars in a bus, simply put. The ad is sort of an homage to Al Jaffee and his brilliant fold-ins in MAD magazine. We hope he likes public transport”, said Lars Jansson, art director at Forsman & Bodenfors.