Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 112 total)
  • Sexism in bikes, part 186 – Specialized the 70's called
  • mikewsmith
    Free Member

    http://road.cc/content/news/183344-specializeds-playboy-e-bike-sparks-social-media-sexism-row
    Pics in link – just a bit sad really

    Specialized has found itself at the centre of a sexism row after a limited edition Playboy e-bike was unveiled at a Berlin bike show alongside women dressed in Playboy Bunny costumes.

    Although the bike was intended for a German market some Brits in attendance at the Berlin Fahrradschau over the weekend expressed shock and disappointment at the association between Playboy and Specialized.

    Some complained the marketing was outdated, and discordant with Specialized’s position as an aspirational brand for women, while others say the product’s marketing was lost in translation, and German clientele at the show – both male and female – enjoyed the bike, and the presence of the women.

    Monika Zamojska, cycle clothing brand House of Astbury co-founder, spotted the “Playboy Bunnies” at the Berlin Fahrradschau over the weekend, and says she feels the marketing contributes to a gender imbalance in the cycling industry and in the sport.

    Zamojska told road.cc: “The reaction were mixed, some people did happily take photos with the models, but not many. A lot of them walked straight past the stand. People I spoke to at the show felt simply uncomfortable with that. –
    – See more at: http://road.cc/content/news/183344-specializeds-playboy-e-bike-sparks-social-media-sexism-row#sthash.sWkwQ5TH.dpuf

    Seriously do they not read STW….

    6079smithw
    Free Member

    capitalism is sexist.
    But yeah let’s all complain about Specialized and Playboy

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Nobody forced them to do it, they thought it was a great way to promote a product.

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    seadog101
    Full Member

    ? really? 🙄

    mrsfry
    Free Member

    Reminds me of the Ford adverts when they photoshoped all the black workers out of the poster and replaced them with white workers.

    This wont effect Specialized, like when they told ‘THAT’ shop to change it’s name or face court (Fuji stepped in and had a WORD’. Shame Specialized are to big to fail or feel the impact of any protest about their behaviour 🙁 (just like Ford)

    makecoldplayhistory
    Free Member

    Is it really so sexist and terrible?

    I mean Specialized – yes the Ford ‘incident’ was disgusting.

    I wouldn’t have wanted my photo taken next to those ladies and it may have made me avoid looking at the stand (not through protest, but feeling uncomfortable being next to very scantily clad ladies) but it wouldn’t put me off buying a bike from the big S.

    Surely beautiful women and beautiful bikes are a great thing together. I’m not even being a deliberate arsehole (and I often am), but I’m yet to feel offended by any of the latest ‘sexism in our sport’. I genuinely wouldn’t have an issue if the latest ladies specific bike from any range had some hunk in lycra on it.

    Do you think female has actually been put off riding because of an ad with a good looking girl in it? I go to the gym despite all the adds showing guys (and ladies) who could do bicep curls with me.

    Think the guy in the I hate Jeffsy adverts was chosen for his gnarness or acting ability?

    slackalice
    Free Member

    This sort of cultural difference towards being offended is exactly why STW needs to pull out of the EU.

    bearnecessities
    Full Member

    STW needs to pull out of the EU.

    A Sexit?

    slackalice
    Free Member

    😀 😀

    wrightyson
    Free Member

    Reminds me of the Ford adverts when they photoshoped all the black workers out of the poster and replaced them with white workers.

    Yeah it’s just as bad as that 🙄

    mrsfry
    Free Member

    Yeah it’s just as bad as that

    Are you saying one vile act is better than the other 😕

    cranberry
    Free Member

    Reminds me of the Ford adverts when they photoshoped all the black workers out of the poster and replaced them with white workers.

    Yeah it’s just as bad as that

    And that is just as bad as Nazism. Which is bad!

    There, I’m the person who is the most offended – what do I win ?

    thejesmonddingo
    Full Member

    Unlike makecoldplayhistory I’m very comfortable in the proximity of scantily clad ladies,but I think using the Playboy link to sell an ebike tells you exactly who it’s aimed at i.e.fat elderly American men 8)

    geoffj
    Full Member

    I wonder how many of you have put Danny Macaskill on the naughty step too.

    choppersquad
    Free Member

    ‘Scantily clad’……really?
    I’m sure if you’d have stuck the young ladies in lycra you’d have still had complaints?
    I’m not really getting the partnership (I’m presuming it’s financial?) but people just seem to be jumping on the moral high ground bandwagon.
    Chill…….no one got hurt.

    glasgowdan
    Free Member

    Yawn. World needs to calm down and untwist their knickers.

    Are women’s only bike clubs and events sexist?

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Are women’s only bike clubs and events sexist?

    Dunno, do they get men to parade around on show?
    Some days the old guard need to get called out on their sexism. How would you explain it to a young girl or boy as to why you need tits to sell stuff.

    Edit…
    I’d also prefer the budget put aside for eye candy was spent on equal pay, prize money and sponsorship for women’s events.

    oldtalent
    Free Member

    Stw professionally offended handwringers to the forum please.

    geoffj
    Full Member

    Monika Zamojska, cycle clothing brand House of Astbury co-founder, spotted the “Playboy Bunnies” at the Berlin Fahrradschau over the weekend, and says she feels the marketing contributes to a gender imbalance in the cycling industry and in the sport.

    A bit like the ratio of boys to girls on the front of cycling mags then?

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Not so much offended at disappointed at the complete lack of imagination on how to promote their products other than by association with what’s at best a sleazy brand Specialized have shown.

    I follow @thenoodleator on Twitter who works for them and she’s done a lot to promote women’s cycling and the Specialized brand with innovative and different stuff over the past few years and yet they manage to shoot themselves in the foot with this.

    Playboy will be delighted as they get more publicity and don’t care about it’s quality or tone, of course.

    Stoner
    Free Member

    ever wondered about the ratio of girls to boys on the cover of runners world?
    Im offended.
    But slightly aroused.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Specialised have in the past done what I thought were excellent adverts involving women. Dressed for cycling, covered in mud, with big grins. And head only shots.

    Looks like some people missed the mark this time though. I’d hope head office are having some strong words.

    bearnecessities
    Full Member

    Don’t get me started on sports illustrated.

    Lovely, lovely, sports illustrated..

    konabunny
    Free Member

    Reminds me of the Ford adverts when they photoshoped all the black workers out of the poster and replaced them with white workers.

    Tbf…iirc…that happened because Ford Poland needed an image, so they took a stock photo from the corporate photo bank, removed the nonwhites (what with there not being many nonwhite people in Poland), used it in their brochure or whatever, but then saved the altered version back into the corporate photo pool (or something), where it got reused by Ford in the UK or US. In other words, it wasn’t as simple as some bigot at Ford deciding to edit out all the people s/he didn’t like the look of.

    Rubber_Buccaneer
    Full Member

    ever wondered about the ratio of girls to boys on the cover of runners world?
    Im offended.
    But slightly aroused.

    No but I am now. Is it mostly boys in shorty shorts? 🙂

    andyrm
    Free Member

    Jesus **** Christ here we go again……

    There’s a commercial partnership between 2 iconic and longstanding American brands. It’s not (as this half truth story reports) Specialized using Playboy bunnies to promote a bike – that’s one of Playboy’s signature branding elements.

    We don’t know what kind of $$$ Playboy paid Spesh for the branding rights on the limited edition but I’d guess it was healthy.

    Can’t help thinking the “professionally offended” perpetuate the myth to allow people like that Adele to monetise her freelance rants, and sites to leverage the traffic from handwringers for commercial gain – and there’s something a bit insidious about stirring up faux outrage just to make a quick buck.

    zippykona
    Full Member

    I see ladies wearing less than that through their own free will most weekends.
    Not offended.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    We don’t know what kind of $$$ Playboy paid Spesh for the branding rights on the limited edition but I’d guess it was healthy.
    Can’t help thinking the “professionally offended” perpetuate the myth to allow people like that Adele to monetise her freelance rants, and sites to leverage the traffic from handwringers for commercial gain

    See there are not many professionally offended here. Mist just a little sad and disappointed that this sort of thing still goes on. Did specialized need the cash? Must be bad binning Gwinn and taking playboys cash.

    For all the stuff spec does with its women’s ranges and all that to flip back to a crass 70’s legacy is just cheap.

    Trimix
    Free Member

    It doesn’t look sexist, just looks like crap marketing really.

    Women wear less on the beach, is that sexist now ?

    davosaurusrex
    Full Member

    I’m most offended that the man from Specialized referred to them as “40 unique bikes”. Does he not understand the meaning of unique? Tsk.

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    How would you explain it to a young girl or boy as to why you need tits to sell stuff.

    What about bras? Difficult to sell bras without tits. 😯

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Women wear less on the beach, is that sexist now ?

    no. The sexist bit is where you use women in bikinis to sell a product that has nothing to do with women in bikinis.

    But you knew that.

    pleaderwilliams
    Free Member

    It’s all very well lots of men declaring themselves not offended by this, but it’s also almost completely irrelevant. It has obviously offended a number of female cyclists, which in my view is a bad thing.

    As for comparing it to men on magazine covers, that’s missing the point rather too. If scantily clad men were regularly being used to sell products in a massively female dominated market then that would be more similar, but it still wouldn’t come close as it doesn’t have a system with a history and present of inbuilt inequality behind it. I’m sure a lot of you have seen this video already, and it’s about racism, not sexism, but the same principles apply:

    [video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dw_mRaIHb-M[/video]

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    Checked out the pictures.
    Those girls would never be able to pedal with flats in those shoes. FAIL.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Specialized are definitely completely sexist. After all, they don’t have a bike called the Fatgirl do they, eh?

    Scott? Big Jon and Big Ed. Where’s Big Joanna and Big Elsie?

    How come Schwalbe do the Jumbo Jim but it’s Magic Mary?

    They’re all bloody at it!

    tenacious_doug
    Free Member

    We don’t know what kind of $$$ Playboy paid Spesh for the branding rights on the limited edition

    I can’t imagine specialized were paid anything.

    cranberry
    Free Member

    Does the video explain how some types of racism are bad, but some are good, based on the skin colour of those on the receiving end ?

    Well there’s a surprise.

    Oh and there is no such thing as reverse racism, there’s just racism and you are guilty of posting up a racist video.

    Well done you.

    teamhurtmore
    Free Member

    Hasn’t cycling been in sexism shame since Lance and Victoira stripped off for their shoots – appalling weren’t they 😉 ?

    johnx2
    Free Member

    Specialised have in the past done what I thought were excellent adverts involving women.

    …oh aye?

    Dressed for cycling,

    …ah ha?

    covered in mud,

    …keep going…

    with big grins.

    …woo hoo!

    And head only shots.

    doh!

    (Aren’t playboy just a particularly naff corner of the porn industry? why any bike company would want to be associated with a brand that evokes an octogenarian bobbing about in a sea of silicone defeats me, embarrassed looking lasses in eight inch heels notwithstanding….)

    konabunny
    Free Member

    I’m most offended that the man from Specialized referred to them as “40 unique bikes”. Does he not understand the meaning of unique? Tsk.

    There’s nothing wrong with saying “these are 40 unique bikes”. They could each be unique. More than one thing can be unique. You just can’t have degrees of uniqueness. And for that reason I am offended by your pedantry fail.

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