Asda back pedals after bike TV advert blunder
Posted on in Cycles News
After announcing with great fanfare that it was to sell "Britain's cheapest bicycle" (£70 adults, £50 kids) as part of its Pedal Power initiative, Asda promptly launched a TV advertising campaign last week to get British bums on saddles.
So far so good? Not quite.
Unfortunately for Asda - and its advertising agency - the TV advert showed one bicycle with its forks facing backwards.
Here is an image from the advert showing forks facing backwards
Sharp eyed viewers spotted the gaff before the ad could be pulled, which meant the blunder went viral online and was picked up on web forums and by the likes of The Guardian and The Mail.
Asda quickly replaced the offending advert with a new version showing all bikes correctly set-up.
It doesn't end there
The same week that Asda aired its TV advert Helen Pidd from The Guardian published her own account of riding one of the bikes for 4 weeks. Safe to say its not the best review Asda could have hoped for. Read it here
And there's more
The TV advert fiasco prompted people to venture into their local Asda stores to see the bikes for themselves. Guess what they found when they go there?
You've got it. More bikes with the forks on backwards
What should we as an industry do about this?
Mark Brown from ACT has purchased one of these bikes and launched a blog to provide an insight into the buying, building and riding of Britain's cheapest bicycle. This includes videos of the bike and it assembly. Take a look here
We urge cycle retailers to link to this blog from their own websites and use it as a reference resource to help better explain to customers the benefits of buying a quality bike which has been correctly and safely assembled.
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