Okay, I’m going to come out and probably break with Anti Advertising Agency official policy, and say that I support ad-supported bike share programs. It is kind of making a deal with the devil, but the urban planning benefits have been demonstrated strongly. Getting cars out of the city, is worth the extra visual advertising. Plus people exercise, and are healthier, and are happier — bike riding is fun.
But this AdBike is just preposterous. The whole point of riding a bicycle in the city is to get somewhere. Transportation. Less space on the road. This is going to be worse than those trucks that drive around with billboards because it slows traffic down: I can’t imagine that beast of a recombent can move fast enough to remain save in the road. So its either going to stop traffic in the car lane, or dangerously take over the bike lane.
Just to give you a sense of how not-real-world this scenario is, check out his slacks and his shoes. He is wearing dress loafers. The only person who is going to be able to safely ride that bicycle in the city is going to be a real bicyclist. They are going to have serious muscles, and some kind of urban riding clothes and shoes. Like the bike taxi folk who have to work just to keep their behemoths moving. Dress slacks, that says a lot.
And all this is avoiding the fact that it looks stupid. If I were a marketer, I can’t imagine wanting my brand to show up on something that bulbous and dorky. Bikes are definitely cool. A lot of marketers and companies want to cash in on the bike = cool factor. But this bike is not cool. It is laughable.
And I’m restraining myself.
For more fun, check out the media kit
For more on why I like bikes, check out FoundBikes.com. Here is my ride