longbeachcyclists.com

What do you think of bicycles being used in advertising?
These two commercials show bicyclists in a postive role.

This one continues with the stigma that having ANY car is better than riding a bike:

There’s a Romano’s Macaroni Grill radio commercial that talks about saving money, “Have you noticed that prices are going up? Man I need to find a way to start saving money… get a better car or start riding a bike” Then it launches in to the restaurants huge-amounts-of-food-for-not-a-lot-of-money deal. And the voice actors are back with, “What a deal! I can eat great and save money without having to wear bike shorts”.

Of course!… because you can’t ride a bike without bike shorts – it’s nearly impossible.

Not counting the sidewalk riding, wrong way riding and whatever else is “wrong”, what do you think of bicycles being used in the media?
Your thoughts?

…At least that’s what a LA Times ad suggests.

This is an interesting ad because it brings up a few societal issues: 1) does your car make you cool, 2) does being cool matter?

Without reading too much into the ad, it seems to suggest that having ANY car is cooler than not having a car at all – too bad for the general population of NYC!

Is a 1989 GeoMetro cooler than my Xtracycle? Sure it gets 49mpg (which puts all these modern fuel economy cars to shame), but come on… look at it!

I guess I’m not really that cool because I don’t spend an average of $16,000 a year paying for something that I can never really own; something that will always need expensive maintenance, parts and fuel. Instead I choose to do entirely dorky things like take 3 week vacations at random, or buy stocks, or add to my 401(k).

There are so many fun ways to take this discussion, and if there are an psych majors out there, please comment on this with your thoughts. The coolests people need others’ opinions while the uncool stand on their own?

So you, the humble bike commuter, unconcerned with what other people think of you… you must actually be the coolest one of all. You don’t care what people think of your helmet, your neon green spandex suit, or the grease mark up the back of your leg… or the fact that you aren’t in a car!

Keep riding, and keep being cool! (if that’s what matters)