The marketing stunt has taken over Oxford Circus Tube by completely rebranding the inside of the station with the iconic PlayStation controller symbols splattered throughout.
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All four entrances of the Oxford Circus Tube station, conveniently located just steps away from Microsoft's big London store, also have the PS5's DualSense controller symbols displayed in huge neon lights. This will last for another 24 hours following today's official release date.
Word play and neon signs
The major marketing rebranding can also be seen across four other Tube stations in the form of a cheeky play on words using their names and popular PlayStation video games. Mile End station was renamed Miles End, referencing Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Lancaster Gate took on the name Ratchet and Clankaster Gate, Seven Sisters will henceforth be known as Gran Turismo 7 Sisters, and finally West Ham was rebranded Horizon Forbidden West Ham. Although the name change is temporary, the decorations inside the stations will last until mid-December.
Similar marketing strategies by major corporations have been seen in collaboration with the Transport for London (TfL) in the past. Most notably, Amazon also played around with station names back in 2017 for the launch of its London data centre. And before that, we saw it as well for the London Marathon in 2015 when Canada Water tube station became Buxton Water.
Will this rebranding work amid Covid19?
Although the effort Sony is putting into this marketing launch will surely not go unnoticed, we can't help but think that perhaps this is the wrong time for such an elaborate move. What with the current social distancing measures increasingly becoming stricter, not as many people will be able to experience the drastic underground makeover.
Still, a little bit of innovation during these trying times is always appreciated.
Check out the promotional video above for more on the London Underground makeover.
