And little of this is coming from the bike industry
Being the consumer driven society we are in America, television commercials often seem to be the cutting edge on the latest trends in the national conscience (One can argue they book end trends based on the number of super-duty pickup truck ads I still see.) We appear to be at a tipping point in the way biking for transportation is viewed in TV ads. Despite the occasional lapses such as the recent Autozone ad running during the Tour de France and Olympics, utility cycling is being shown more and more in a positive light.
What is surprising is that none of this has come from the bike industry. Instead, it appears the championing of bikes belonging is coming from such unlikely sources as a freight railroad company and a credit checking service.
A quick rundown of recent bike related ads include this one by FreeCreditReport.com
This one by freight shipper CSX
And finally, the best of them, this ad as part of a whole series promoting the idea of cycling by Regions Bank.
So what do all these ads have in common? They show people using bikes a legitimate transportation, in fact as a better form of transportation than cars in the first and last ad.
So this is great. Bikes are increasingly being seen as a viable option for everyday people. Unfortunately, the bicycle industry, the very group benefiting from this trend, has done next to nothing to promote what could be a market that would dwarf their favored segment, racing bikes.
In the last several months, three bike companies have produced TV ads for the American market: Trek, Specialized, and Cervelo. Specialized & Cervelo’s ads have only focused on the performance road market.
Cervelo is off the hook in my book since they only make performance road and tri bikes. No reason for them to promote transportation cycling.
Specialized has produced a series with world road bike champions Paolo The Cricket Bettine and Tom Tommeke Bom-Bom Tom-Tom Blow-Blow Boonen (I guess Vinny The Chin wasn’t available) with the heavily accented catch phrase “I am Specialize.” Sounds like the only way I’m Specialized is if I suit up in spandex for a Saturday group ride. Oh well, more of the same from the bike industry.
The ad I really want to single out is Trek’s recent ad called Believe narrated by “a certain Lance Armstrong” to quote Paul Sherwin. In a slickly produced spot, Armstrong attempts to make an emotional appeal for Trek bikes (not necessary a brand to be passionate about) by voicing over shots of all the different ways people use bikes. Like nuclear waste, this is just a lot of blah, blah, blah to me. Shots of hammer heads stomping on pedals, a guy & a girl going to a coffee shop, and a scene of a charity ride all help reinforce the idea of the bike as toy.
Then we get to a scene of a bike commuter with Lance saying, “We believe in . . . the idea that complex problems can be solved in simple ways.” The words sound great but the image sucks. We have a guy in the rain with full rain gear riding on a dark street with cars darting in and out around him. ARE WE F***ING TRYING TO SELL BIKES HERE? I ride my bike to work and for most errands every day, and I would have serious pause about riding on that street. Not only is this ad doing nothing to promote cycling for transportation like Trek’s ad buying bike industry brethren, but it also appears to be actively discouraging this type of cycling. Raging against the elements may work for Tour de France footage, but it does not make a middle class mom want to get out and try biking to work.
Does this picture make you want to ride on the street? Me neither.
So rather than going back to selling $250 carbon fiber seatpost racks, I’d rather see a bike company that actually promoted utility biking as healthy, money saving, simple instead of a testosterone and adrenaline filled version of dodge-car. Until we get that, I think I’ll pass on patronizing these companies for my biking needs.
In the meantime, we can always learn from the Dutch and Hungarians on how to make sometime funny, sometimes strange, but always interesting ads promoting everyday cycling.
Related posts:
- City bikes the new carbon in bike industry ...
- KVUE succeeds in its hit on the cycling community ...
- Custom builders take a stab (and mostly miss) on transportation bikes at Oregon Manifest ...
- Innovative transportation policy sacrificed on the altar of bipartisanship ...
- Vehicular cycling versus bike lanes: why they are both right, both wrong and why bike boulevards matter ...
on Oct 29th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Great post! Thanks for taking the time to get all these ads together. I hadn’t seen any of them (except Tom Tom’s)
And I agree with your indictment of the bike industry’s (lack of) advertising. They sit on their brains while the transportation revolution, perhaps the best opportunity for them in years, passes them by.
Sad.
Funny ads though!
on Oct 30th, 2008 at 10:32 am
This is a fantastic rant … er, post! Clif Bar’s “Two Mile Challenge” (particularly its radius maps with pre-loaded and customizable destinations) and blogs like this one do an infinitely better job of selling the idea of bikes as legitimate (nay, ideal!) forms of transportation. The problem is that they’re primarily reaching folks who are already leaning this way. The bike companies are the ones with the cash. They definitely need to step up their efforts to reach would-be riders and commuters. At the very least, they should find ways of supporting those who are doing such work for them.
on Oct 30th, 2008 at 10:37 am
PS
This are terrific videos, but it cracks me up to see all the “bad” cycling habits (e.g., poorly-fitting helmets, riding on the sidewalk, no hand signals, etc.) peppered throughout.
on Oct 30th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Scott,
In fairness to Trek, they have launched a the 1 world 2 wheels campaign to encourage people to bike for transportation. I just wish they’d make this look appealing in their ad as well.