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news
Emirates ad Sydney (cropped, source Bicycleadagio on Twitter).PNGHelmet 'added' to image of Amsterdam cyclist for Australian ad campaign
An advertising campaign in Australia for the UAE-based airline Emirates has attracted derision on Twitter – because it depicts an Amsterdam cyclist who according to people who have seen the poster in person has clearly had a helmet placed on her head with the help of Photoshop or similar software.
Twitter user @BicycleAdagio posted a picture of the advert to Twitter, with other users of the social network saying that they had also seen it in Perth and Brisbane.
Emirates ad on a bus stop in Sydney. Yes, that's a photoshopped helmet on a cyclist in Amsterdam. pic.twitter.com/tKrJwWtU7p
— Stephen B (@BicycleAdagio) June 15, 2016
The Dutch capital, of course, has among the highest modal shares of cycling in the world and among people who use bikes as a means of transport, those who wear helmets are in a tiny minority.
In Australia, cyclists are required by law to wear a helmet, with those who go bare-headed in New South Wales facing a fine of A$319 (£166).
The soft focus of the image posted to Twitter means it’s hard to determine for sure whether or not the image has been manipulated, but user @geoff_tewierik wrote: “Saw one of these joke ads from @emirates in Brisbane the other day too. Clueless marketing department.”
Another user, @cyclingtiger, said: “Sadly I suspect that this is because it's cheaper to photoshop than to put up with angry complaints about helmetless riding.”
Assuming the image was indeed altered, that may have been done so as not to fall foul of the country’s advertising watchdog.
Last year, Australia’s Advertising Standards Board upheld a complaint against a television advert for a health club which included footage of two women riding a tandem without helmets.
The advertiser, Fernwood Fitness Centre, argued amongst other things that the women were riding on private property and were not therefore required by law to wear helmets.
In considering whether the advertisement did indeed breach health and safety guidelines, the watchdog said:
The Board noted that community standards are very clear on the issue of health and safety whilst riding a bicycle and considered that a depiction of an adult riding a bicycle without a helmet is a depiction which is in breach of these community standards.
In the current advertisement the Board noted that the two women on the bicycle are not wearing safety helmets. The Board noted the advertiser’s response that the advertisement was filmed on private property. The Board noted that the women are depicted riding on a footpath adjacent to a road and considered that it is not obvious that this area is private therefore the most likely interpretation is that the women are riding on a road-related area.
Upholding the complaint, it added:
Overall the Board considered that the advertisement did depict material contrary to prevailing community standards on health and safety.
The advertiser subsequently edited the spot to remove the offending footage, which lasted just 3 seconds.
While in part the Advertising Standards Board’s decision was based on the fact that it wasn’t clear whether or not the women riding the tandem were on the public highway, what is abundantly evident from the Emirates poster is that the cyclist isn’t in Australia at all.
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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71 comments
You weren't missed. Sorry, but it's the truth.
Oh no. Willo has spoken. I'm sure PennineRider is inconsolable and will now top himself via the tried and tested technique of not deferring to every other road user on his commute home.
Come back and take the piss out of him. It's fun!
No. It's not fun. It's stupid.
Yet another potentially interesting thread turned toxic and absurd.
A troll's objective is to make every thread about *them*. He likes it when you engage with him and insult him. When you change your avatar to include his name, you're just turning the whole board into Willo.cc and you're as bad as he is.
Objection!
Come on mate.
He's getting a reaction, regardless. I've replied to him on too many threads, but as long as he's here, threads will be hijacked. If it's not me, you, bikebot, whoever responding, it'll be others. This thread has fresh Willo victims and that'll continue.
He could represent and argue his potentially interesting angles without being a contrary twat, but he doesn't. The blame for that is on him.
I do apologise. Let me explain in the form of a really big gif.
That was a good film, but nobody was wearing a helmet
It isn't obligatory to wear seatbelts while driving in every country. Would it be acceptable for an Australian ad to feature a carefree young woman driving the fuck out of the latest BMW convertible with no seatbelt on?
No. Didn't think so.
Total non-story.
And your logic is, "driving the fuck" out of a German convertible is acceptable so long as there is a seatbelt.
Actually, that's a fairly good approximation of the car industry. Everyday dumb is much dumber than the dumbness reported on here.
Heres a wee link regarding worldwide seatbelt legislation. Personally I wouldn't want to be travelling to the countries highlighted in white (Greenland excluded) the only countries in red I would choose to travel to would be the various Pacific Islands. As you can see. No need to doctor images to highlight the wearing of a seatbelt of an Aussie lass raking the guts out of a Beemer as seatbelt legislation is pretty much worldwide especially in developed nations. http://chartsbin.com/view/2028
New Hampshire? Very beautiful, especially in Autumn.
Besides the point though. It is unethical to depict unlawful activity as attractive to promote a product or service.
This is just another poor excuse to bash the helmet laws in Australia, enacted by a democratically elected government.
Bashing Emirates for respecting local laws and customs in their advertising is misplaced and quite frankly pathetic.
It is not unlawful to cycle without a helmet in the Netherlands.
I'd say it was far more unethical to fake pictures (if that's what they did) to apply Australia's outlandish standards to others countries through misrepresentation.
It is unlawful to cycle without a helmet in Australia where this advertising campaign is running. That is the point. It is not Emirates job to point out that other governments aren't as responsible.
The age of consent in Brazil is 14. Presumably you would have no problem with an Emirates ad for the Olympics starring a loved up 40 year old man with his Lolita Brazilian 'girlfriend'?....
Of course we would. As would everyone in Brazil. Something being legal doesn't prevent it being offensive or just plain dumb. See Microsoft advert above.
Glad that was cleared that up. Next stupid argument?
Are you seriously equating 'riding a bike without a helmet' with child-sexual-exploitation? Are you really that far gone?
And are you telling me that Australian adverts never show pictures from the US showing cars on the 'wrong' side of the road? Really?
Not equating. Acknowledging the similarities given that both activities are illegal in Australia.
Depicting either activity in an Australian ad as a positive reason to travel with Emirates to countries where it is legal is wholly distasteful and inappropriate.
What next, a picture of a helmetless cyclist smoking a post-ride joint outside a 'coffee shop'?
Let me see if I understand.
You are suggesting that airlines etc should edit any picture of a country they are portaying to ensure that what they are portraying is the same as it would be the country where they are advertising.
You did not understand.
The issue is legality. Activities happening abroad that are illegal at home should not be promoted in an advert.
Fly Emirates to Mumbai where the whole family can bond over a cigarette:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/17/article-2508985-19775128000005...
Er .... no.
So you think that when Emrirates shows adverts for Dubai they should change all the vehicles on the roads to be shown driving on the right (which is illegal here)
No. Well maybe for the vast majority of posters below the line on road.cc who seem to be a bit hard of thinking, but otherwise no.
So you are selective in what you think should be photoshopped. Interesting.
Tell me, why are you so very unpleasent and rude about people. I have observed that people engage in constructive discussion, often with a degree of humour, and yet you find the need to trash what they say and be personally offensive to them.
For example in the discussion about the diet and climate change, various points were made which you dismissed out of hand; your own reasoning was demonstrated to contain fallacies, you suggested that people should not criticise the report's author and yet you were grossly and gratuitously offensive to many people and made personal and and nasty coments about many people here.
Why do you do that?
What are you trying to prove?
Yes. Get rid of the illegal stuff. Don't imply that people can pick and choose which side of the road to drive on in an advert. Right or left, keep it consistent and don't underestimate the intelligence of the audience.
I give as good as I get. If people cannot take it they should not dish it out. There are quite a few people on here who I respect but don't always agree with them. brooksby, carton, giff, fukawitribe, bendertherobot etc. Never exchanged a harsh word with any of them. They have manners.
some of these others though,
...... bad manners with a double digit IQ? Not a good look.
Prove? What does that mean?
You do understand that this is a space where people exchange opinions about cycling, not facts?
You have said gratuitously offensive things about "most" people here. Seriously, your approach is really unpleasant. to hid ebhind the "well they started it" argument is at best disengenuous and certainly not a good excuse.
And yes I do understand; what this is and am not sure that you are entitled to command that peopel do not discuss facts as well as opinions.
Again I ask: what are you trying to prove with your seriously unpleasent approach? Do you think you are influencing anybody or is it really an attempt at self aggrandisement - at least in your own mind? Does it make you feel big, or clever or important "sticking it" to people you have never met from the safety of your little room? Is your life really so shallow and empty?
He's obviously a genuine troll. I doubted it at first, as real trolls (rather than just normal argumentative idiots) are quite rare. He's trying to get a rise out of you.
He's also a major league bullshitter. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't even own a bike, but some JSR type figure who's come here to see how long he can wind up the cyclists.
It probably would be nice to get the site back to normal, talking about the stories rather than talking about Willo and his mad thoughts on the stories. Like Katie Hopkins, it's all a bit obvious, and the style doesn't hide that his arguments are as thick as a bag of spanners.
His presence here is sadomasochistic. I don't get it, unless he's a Daily Mail-ite moton who's happened to discover that he likes riding a bike, and he hates himself for it. It's his horrible, dark secret. He comes on here to indulge in a bit of penance.
What gratuitously offensive things have I said about you?
I rest my case.
I man who posts comments like this...
... as his opening remark on a story, and now claims not to be gratuitously offensive.
I don't think he's being sincere. I think he's acting very deliberately. I think he does this because he's probably a bit insecure and has issues.
Nowhere near son, nowhere near.
Worth remembering that Australia legislates pedestrians heavily as well as cyclists. They'd have a hell of a time photoshopping a typical London streetscene to conform to their local laws.
How about a European woman sunning herself in a bikini on the beach in an Islamic country where people are expected to dress modestly?
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