How the world has changed

[Ham]

I find this exceptionally odd, but entirely welcome. It's been a long time coming.

http://www.honda.co.uk/cars/new/civic-5-door/real-view-test-drive.html

Honda, in a bid to associate their vehicles with a spirit of freedom, fun and superiority have created a (360) video of driving and cycling. The message appears to be, buy one of our cars and you can have as much fun as cycling with all your friends.

[Kim]

I suppose it's just a case of:
a) Trying to show people doing something fun (and legal) that involves actually driving a car, rather than the destination.
b) It looks cool in 360 video.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Car manufacturers try to make driving look fun and the only way they can do that is by showing driving in unrealistic situations (closed roads in this case) or doing things that are dangerous and/or illegal. Is this a change?

[Ham]

I think the change is extraordinarily significant, as it shows that Honda expects a large proportion of its target audience to think more positively about their cars by associating with cycling. It marks a seismic change in the alignment between drivers and cyclists. Never mind that we're stuck in our little echo chamber with our "Motorised Moron of the Day" etc, out there in the real world drivers and cyclists are coalescing into one and the same animal. Doubtless connected with the recent sporting success in cycling, the "Us and Them" just became a lot more blurred. Bit like us all, really.

[T42]

Makes a change from dolly birds squatting on the bonnet but the technique is much the same, with the nuance that cyclists are supposedly fit,  healthy and eco-friendly. What do they call it, transference?

[rogerzilla]

If they had used a group of hi-viz, middle-aged, thousand-yard-stare audaxers near the end of a wet 600, that would have been progress 

[Andrij]

If they had used a group of hi-viz, middle-aged, thousand-yard-stare audaxers near the end of a wet 600, that would have been progress 

The equivalent of putting diseased lungs on cigarette packaging?

[fd3]

If you want to sell something, use water (e.g. waterfalls or rain), ladies in not much clothing and bikes.  It's an established advertising tradition, just keep a look out and you'll see it.

[Ham]

If you want to sell something, use water (e.g. waterfalls or rain), ladies in not much clothing and bikes.  It's an established advertising tradition, just keep a look out and you'll see it.

I'm curious, how old are you (nearest decade will do)? In recent years, as you say, it has become common to a person riding a bike in advertising. If it is a sporty thing they might be trying to ride hard, in a lifestyle thing they will be smiling in the sun, normally just a single shot. But, really, it has not always been that way! Also I've not seen a mainstream advert for just about anything actually focussed just on cycling, let alone for a car.

[Cudzoziemiec]

In the past it would have been skiing, golf, a picnic or whatever. Cycling is the latest "transference activity" to use T42's jargon. Yes, that reflects a change in perception of cycling (sport cycling at least) but it's not a new way of advertising cars.

[tonyh]

This must have made a strong impression on me in the 1950s (though I didn't take up the smoking...):

http://www.retrocards.co.uk/prodshow/BP057___Players_Cigarettes__Bike_Ride__1950s__30x40cm_Art_Print_/BP057-players-cigarettes-1950s.html

[Ham]

In the past it would have been skiing, golf, a picnic or whatever. Cycling is the latest "transference activity" to use T42's jargon. Yes, that reflects a change in perception of cycling (sport cycling at least) but it's not a new way of advertising cars.

Well, exactly.

[T42]

This must have made a strong impression on me in the 1950s (though I didn't take up the smoking...):

http://www.retrocards.co.uk/prodshow/BP057___Players_Cigarettes__Bike_Ride__1950s__30x40cm_Art_Print_/BP057-players-cigarettes-1950s.html

The slogan there reminds me of the old line, "a drink before or a cigarette afterwards", which would certainly have been known to Players' advertising copywriters back then.

[Ian H]

This must have made a strong impression on me in the 1950s (though I didn't take up the smoking...):

Just the (implied) sex? 

[tonyh]

Just the (implied) sex? 

Not just that, there was also the explicit drinking and cycling.

[rogerzilla]

A few years ago, Twix used a grey, helmet-wearing cyclist called Norm as a kind of antithesis of all that is cool.  It was so condemned that they digitally altered it to a pith helmet in later showings.

https://youtu.be/2pAR0WzdSdo

[Kim]

A few years ago, Twix used a grey, helmet-wearing cyclist called Norm as a kind of antithesis of all that is cool.  It was so condemned that they digitally altered it to a pith helmet in later showings.

https://youtu.be/2pAR0WzdSdo

That's just a rip off of Duane Dibbley.  Interesting that they gave him a cycle helmet, presumably because he needed his hands free, so couldn't carry his train-spotter notebook and flask of weak lemon drink, which would complete the 90s 'Anorak' archetype.

Cycling (with the possible exception of serious mountain biking) was indeed Not Cool in the 90s.


(You know how Old People joke to grandchildren that the past was all black and white?  I think my generation will be telling them that the 1990s really did have the saturation turned up to 11.)

[mrcharly-YHT]

(You know how Old People joke to grandchildren that the past was all black and white?  I think my generation will be telling them that the 1990s really did have the saturation turned up to 11.)

Only after dropping an E