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'Cycle commuting is sexy' TV advert airs in Scotland
It's modern, healthy, fast... and impresses the opposite sex :-)
Glasgow City Council has paid for 27 showings of a 30-second advert from the Scottish Cycling Development Project that portrays cycling to work as the modern, healthy, fast way to commute.
The ads started airing on STV on Monday and will be screened through until 18th May. There's a mix of peak and late-night slots during the week and daytime slots at the weekend, including during the petrol-soaked coverage of the Austrian Grand Prix.
The ad opens with a thirtysomething suburban male in shirt and tie saying "I love car commercials, don't you?"
There's then glam footage of speed and the open road which is brought to a screeching halt when the dream sequence is interrupted by day-to-day reality: traffic snarl-ups. The suburban male says "Yeh, right...I've found a better way to that feeling [of speed]" and the camera pans out to reveal him getting on his bike and starting his daily cycle commute to work.
Once at the office he's greeted by a sexy, female cycle courier saying "Early again?"
The ad ends with "Give your car a break, get in the fast lane" and lingers on the Scottish Cycling Development Project's website and Glasgow City Council's cycle-and-walking helpline.
The ad production company was supplied with bikes from Trek (logo clearly visible in the ad), clothing from Scottish company Endura, eyewear from Adidas, and accessories from Fisher Outdoor Leisure.
See also: http://www.scottishcycling.org
Thanks to BikeBiz for this story.
Posted on 07 May 2003
Your comments ...| From: michael addiscott (michaeladdiscott@scottishcycli) on 07 May 2003 |
Hi, thanks for picking up this story. We believe that this is the first time a tv ad specifically to promote cycle use as a practical commuting mode has been shown on a national network.
Please could you add adidas eyewear to the list of companies who assisted in making the finished product look as cool as it does. They were a great help, and I would like to count on their continued support.
Regards,
Michael Addiscott
Cycling Development Officer
SCDP |
| From: Ian Fardoe ([email protected]) on 07 May 2003 |
Fantastic!
Is there anyway we poor fools south of the border can get access to this?
Quite happy downloading a big file if neccessary as it's just the thing Im looking for at the moment.
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| From: Tom (tom@compofcyclists) on 08 May 2003 |
| There's several fools south of the border who have things like this in the pipeline right now. The above looks excellent, and gets right away from the worthy and flatfooted stance of lots of cycle promotion efforts. Now can anyopne explain why the DfT recently gave £60,000 to a London consultancy for a study on WHETHER you can market cycling?! |
| From: Carlton Reid ([email protected]) on 09 May 2003 |
Money well spent, Tom. The results will be unveiled on 13th May, news of which will go on my site. Peter E is welcome to use this news here.
Steve Norris is dead against marketing of any sort so the money is being spent arguing the case so the DfT will give many millions to the marketing of cycling. The agency concerned - Circus - did the Floodline makeover, a fantastically successful campaign produced to a relatively low budget. Many Circus staffers are cyclists and pitched for the account even before they knew there was an account to pitch for. |
| From: Tom ([email protected]) on 12 May 2003 |
| Four out of fifteen key staff, is it not, Carlton? Think I read that on an industry website somewhere ;) Marketing of cycling is an excellent thing, and should not be undertaken crudely or lightly, so time taken in planning a campaign is effort in the right place. What I question the couching of the issue in terms of WHETHER cycling can be marketed effectively. One might postulate that WHAT sort of cycling, (and bikes) should be marketed in order that people don't get disillusioned quickly, for example. |
| From: Carlton Reid ([email protected]) on 12 May 2003 |
| That's pretty much my favourite fly-in-the-ointment question I usually put to the bods who favour pro-cycling marketing campaigns. It might be scatter-gun unfocussed but I'm happy to see ANY promotion (er, unless it's 'cycling is unsafe so wear helmets' advertising!). Turning people on to cycling only for them to be shocked by lack of 'facilities' is a possible problem but, screw it, let's cheers for a marketing campaign anyway. Fit, lithe, healthy 20 and 30 somethings on bikes, and good looking seniors too, is what we're after. No wrinkled black woollen tights, manky cycle jerseys or fat blokes in Lycra. |
| From: Tom ([email protected]) on 15 May 2003 |
Quite. Both cycle soprt and cycle enthusaists can give quite the wrong messages at times. I wonder about bread-and-butter, A to B cycling being promoted with 'aspirational' images, though. Many campaigns for the adoption of a mode of behavior/resource use as 'normal' use images of the everyday, combined with the message that the object of the campaign is a 'smart' choice - witness the bus stops and jars of pickles in the ads for BBC digital freeview services. Sport, leisure and Jewelery bikes, then yes, aspirational marketing is probably key, but transport - making cycling the obvious, safe,smart move has to be key.
Incidentally, received yet another rude email this morning from a member of the public complaining that some of our images, (of real cyclists, and yes, pretty ones), show people without helmets. "have I missed something?" my correspondent asked... |
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