The Most Sexist Bike Ad I've Ever Seen

[ski diva]

From Superior Bikes, a Czech Republic manufacturer. They've changed it, but only after a huge public outcry.

The copy on their site under their “Modo” collection read as follows:

Female cyclists do not generally need to push their limits, race against time and increase their adrenaline when riding rough downhill trails. They just want to enjoy the time spent in nature on the bike, and their expectations on the bike are completely different from the men’s. They look mainly for safe, easy and, of course, stylish bikes that have good and natural handling.



Incredible, yes?

As my husband said, "They should have a new tag line: Superior Bikes, Superior Attitude."

 

[altagirl]

A couple things:
1 - from what I've heard, they did a poor job translating this into English. No excuse, they should spend more time and money having that done right, but... it's not likely coming across quite how they meant it.

2 - this comes straight from a large survey of women done just last year. Most women (like 50% or something) said exactly those things - the main reasons they ride or want to ride are to get out in nature, not for adrenaline rush, etc. They actually DID do market research on this and just worded it incredibly poorly. There IS a large segment of the women's market who wants exactly this. (They are selling hybrid bikes for riding pavement with a little off-road mixed in there... all the big bike manufacturers sell these, they just do so without suggesting that they're what all women want...) There is just also a large segment of the women's market who does like to race/push limits/go for the adrenaline rush and they just alienated them and pissed them off.

Anyway - it's written poorly and in an insensitive manner and they clearly should have done a much better job with the wording. BUT the products have an audience (and a large one) - it's just not ALL WOMEN. Change a few words - start it off with "Some women" and delete the word "generally" and say their expectations (then not all women's expectations, but the ones who aren't looking for adrenaline/race performance) are completely different than "the average man's" and it's no longer offensive. Though it still could use some modification to make it sound like it's in really fluent English...

 

[ski diva]

Thanks, attagirl. I wasn't aware of any of that.

So I did some searching on line. Here's the apology. And here's the new text.

 

[alicie]

I read this as sexiest ad at first, and was a little bit disappointed.

Their new wording is much better, the original they duffed that up big time. I get what they were meaning but oops, I think they'll be checking better next time.

 

[pinto]

I read this as sexiest ad at first, and was a little bit disappointed.

Their new wording is much better, the original they duffed that up big time. I get what they were meaning but oops, I think they'll be checking better next time.

yeah, I didn't really look into it, but it sounded to me like it was just not written very well. It also sounds like the kind of bike I might want, since I'm not much of a cyclist of any sort, so I get that part. Just don't say it quite like that, lol.

 

[bounceswoosh]

Maybe we need a #notallwomen hashtag ... nah, that wanders into some political minefields.

I completely agree that many, maybe even most, women want this - the description is dead-on for my mom; but then again, it's also dead-on for my dad. @altagirl , you're right that they just needed some qualifying words to completely change the tone - but that's pretty much always the case with many ignorant, inadvertently harmful or prejudiced statements.

The new text is a million times better.

I also think there's a bit of a cultural issue at play - I've noticed that in some areas of Europe, women seem to be more open to generalizations than, say, the people I hang with in this part of the US. But it might be more similar to the attitudes of some women in the southern US. When I saw this text, I rolled my eyes and definitely felt that the Czech (I think) origin had a lot to do with the concepts being expressed.

 

[altagirl]

Agreed, there are men in the comfort/hybrid market too. And I assume they sell men's versions of these as well.

And I agree it was sexist as written originally. Just meant to point out that I don't think it was completely out of left field. I just felt it is more of a translation and cultural misstep with how it was worded.

 

[mustski]

A company who can't word things well won't last long. Even women who want that kind of bike will respond negatively if offended. Marketing is everything and word choice is foundational - in any language.

 

[Moonrocket]

I also read it as sexiest and was hoping for pictures ;-)

In an interesting know your customer move- our local all women's triathlon has a aide station maned by the guys in the Colorado Firefighter Calendar. It nearly makes me want to do a road bike tri...