Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Stop signs with marketing pizazz
Yes. I work in marketing. And yes, marketing works just like this...
Stop signs are a hot topic in bicycling circles these days. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission in the Bay Area is considering a measure to allow bicyclists to treat stop signs as yields, similar to the present law in Idaho. And as fuel pump refugees crowd the bike lanes and streets as new bicycle commuters, a few motorists are raising the tiresome "bicyclists at stop signs" complaint. Hey, they gotta gripe at someone, right? And they can't touch the oil companies.
The "bicyclists don't stop" canard is among my favorite motorist laments, and I've responded to it before. Stop signs are a recent creation of the automotive age, intended primarily to regulate motorists intent on crashing into each other.
The characters in this video don't seem overly concerned with bicyclists. (And note the bike subversively lurking in the background of the creative studio at 3:40.) Bicyclists are simply not a significant public health threat.
Visit: City to step up enforcement of bike laws, Chicago Tribune
Visit: The Myth of the Scofflaw Cyclist, TheWashCycle
Visit: "The law" is not divinely inspired!, Aren Cambre's Blog
Visit: Bike joy beats auto pathology, Bike Commute Tips Blog
Visit: Can't we all just get along?, Bike Commute Tips Blog
Visit: Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips Site
Excellent, outstanding example of why selective communication eventually backfires. My wife was a manager at Leo for years and I got to meet many creative directors. Of course corporate commercial messages are typically simpler, for good reasons.
ReplyDeleteJack
When someone complains to me about cyclists not stopping, I direct them to a video I took a year ago of a stop sign close to my work.
ReplyDeletehttp://warren-t.blogspot.com/2007/08/stop.html
Excellent! Stop means stop. Simple, elegant and life saving.
ReplyDeleteI am an avid bicycle commuter in the great state of Idaho. You can treat stop signs as yelds and red street lights as stop signs. The police are great to cyclists and encourage it. Idaho is backwards in most legislation, but with bicycle laws they got it right.
ReplyDelete