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Specialized Playboy e-bike.jpgSpecialized apologises for Playboy Bunny e-bike promotion
US bike manufacturer Specialized has apologised after women dressed in Playboy Bunny costumes appeared next to a limited edition Playboy electric bike launched on the German market that was unveiled last week at a bike show in Berlin.
The California-based company insists that it does not endorse women being objectified, and says that the marketing initiative had been taken locally, without the knowledge of its global marketing staff.
Slate Olson, Specialized’s chief marketing officer, who joined the company 12 months ago after seven years with Rapha, said: “We apologise for a recent marketing activation which we participated in at the Berlin Bike Show with the Limited Edition Turbo.
“Specialized stands strong with female riders and we do not support the objectification of women in any way, in any region.
“In the future we will continue only to build on the great work we have done to promote women and men in cycling,” added Olson.
As we reported on Sunday, some British visitors to the show expressed disappointment at the presence of the models next to the Playboy-branded bike, saying that it undermined Specialized’s efforts to position itself as an aspirational brand for female cyclists.
> Specialized's "Playboy" e-bike sparks social media sexism row
Many locals attending the show, however, did pose for photographs with the women, with road.cc editor Tony Farrelly noting: “None of the Germans seemed to care; they loved it ... The times I passed it, it seemed mainly to be middle aged, middle class professional couples with the wife getting her husband to go and have his picture taken.”
Monika Zamojska, co-founder of UK-based cycle clothing brand House of Astbury, who was also at the show, told road.cc at the weekend: “The reaction was mixed.”
But she added: "These women were there to simply to look pretty next to the bike, and reducing women to just their appearance is what makes it so hard for female customers, athletes and women working in the industry to be treated seriously. We are not here to look pretty, we mean business.
"Women have the right to be represented by the industry in the same way as men do and not to be used as a tool to market products to the male audience.”
In a press release accompanying the launch of the bike, Dominik Geyer of Specialized said: "When the opportunity to a product collaboration with Playboy showed we were immediately hooked!
“Two premium brands – a joint project. The Turbo S Edition combines Playboy lifestyle, innovative technology and pure joy of cycling. We are proud of the 40 unique bikes."
Specialized has since made it clear, however, that the marketing initiative was executed at a local level with no consultation taking place with its global headquarters in Morgan Hill, California.
Emphasising that “this is by no means an excuse as we have to stand up to any decision made in any market,” the company said that “this market activation was carried out locally by the regional marketing manager, and was not discussed with or approved by our global marketing team.”
However, as Zamojska pointed when we spoke to her on Sunday, the rise of social media in recent years means that local initiatives by global brands can – and do – reach a global audience.
"It might have been a product and a campaign targeted at the local market, but that does not justify it, especially that it only takes one tweet for the whole world to see it," she said.
Specialized's statement doesn't say whether or not the bike remains on sale in Germany with the Playboy branding, and we have asked the company for clarification.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Welcome - probably didn't show as they tagged it "not near miss of the day"?
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The small frame, the aggressive posture, lots of standover height.
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19 comments
Well it is The Easter Bunnies.....
This moral outrage denies women their right of choice. What if a particular person actually wants to dress up in a daft costume and be drooled over from a distance? Enjoys it, doesn't believe it makes all women 'objects', just her? She's not to be allowed then, because someone else thinks they shouldn't, and this someone else thinks they're more intelligent or morally superior?
In any case, how does it degrade all women that a tiny minority want to do this for a few quid? Or even that this particular woman is an 'object' - she's only posing like this today, for a while, playing a role. She's not like this as a person, all the time for the rest of her life.
Are all men 'objectified' by Arnold Schwarzenegger and his ilk pumping up into stereotypes of men? Or by David Beckham appearing in ads as a stereotypical fashion object/clone? If they are, no one seems to bother much about it.
Not that I'd be seen dead on anything with a Playboy icon or name anywhere near it myself, of course. Embarrassing or what.
What about all the people (male and female) that make promotions and modelling thier career choices?
Strawman argument. I have yet to see one post criticising the "career choice" of these women or challenging their right to dress how they please.
The criticism is for Specialized, a cycling company that purports to support the aspirations of women in sport, treating female human beings as if they have no value other than as decorative ornaments for the entertainment of their "gentlemen" customers.
This is a bicycle company not Spearmint Rhino. WTF?
To my view this was a cheap, nasty, misogynist stunt that should have been strangled at birth. Hopefully someone at Specialized Germany is going for a very long walk off a very short plank for the damage caused to their reputation.
"Hi, yes I need a professional CV writing pronto please. My name is Dirk and my previous experience includes making awesome creative decisions as Marketing manager of Specialized Germany".
What utter nonesense. It's brand association for pitys sake! The bike is branded as a Playboy Edition, what exactly did we think Playboy does?
What irritates me about all of this fake outrage is that had this been a WWE Wrestling Edition bike, and some 6'6" steroid abusing, jacked-up wrestler had been present to promote the collaboration, no one would have given it a second thought.
A lot of over reaction. Not unlike Americans having strokes over wardrobe malfunctions. Anyone, women included, making anything over this makes them look small and petty. It sends a message that we can't compete with intellect or athletic prowess so we have to belittle petty things like this.
This is simply not a big deal. Get over it and focus on succeeding in bigger and more important things.
Tacky, outdated and unnecessary
So Monika Zamojska doesn't want women to look pretty. I wonder if she sought their (all other women) opinions before making that statement. Obviously those two girls didn't want to pose with the bike, they were forced to do it.
Theres so much stupid in your comment that its astounding.
No need surely, this reads as passive aggressive nonsence without any justification apart from namecalling and bullying.
As for the original comment, it's an opinion. Get over it.
Did someone complain?
I like playboy bunnys and bikes.
Marketing worked on me!
I thought it was cheap retrograde nonsense. I'd rather see Lizzie Armitstead or Anna Van Der Breggen riding bikes than these two "bunnies" standing around next to them.
Cycling has mostly moved on and it's crap like this that may well turn off future women champions. A weak excuse from Specialized blaming a local marketing department - yet another reason to avoid their brand.
Even when a womens champion is used blowing a kiss the proverbial hits the fan. The world has gone completely bonkers.
That brand is toxic in relation to anything positive involving women. Can't quite see how this was going to end any other way? Whoever took the Bunny's money was in for a rough time over this. Best avoided me thinks. Still don't understand the need for girls on the podium, even in womens races FFS.
So they get two bunny girls to pose in front of a bike, and then get lots of free advertising from outraged media types. Result!
So they don't support the objectification of women but they do make a limited edition bike of a brand funded by the objectification of women. Is that not the definition of hypocrisy.
Storm in a C-cup, I'd say.
"marketing activation"
"...combines Playboy lifestyle, innovative cycling"
"Two premium brands"
I found the marketing drone.