Thursday, April 24, 2008

Transportation on the Tube

Earlier this month, I posted some comments on the portrayal of bicycles in TV commercials.

There's a new commercial for Farmers Insurance that you may have seen.

It shows this pathetic schmoe who's been the victim of an auto accident. The message is how tough it is to get around without your car, while your loser-insurance-company twiddles its thumbs with your case. The guy is relegated to riding a tiny bicycle with 12-inch wheels. As he pedals along furiously, in all the wrong places, he's met with road rage and near-disaster at every turn.





(The commercial can be seen HERE if you haven't seen it.)

To its credit, a transportation cyclist on a normal-sized bike is seen for a brief instant as he passes the schmoe... and he seems to be doing just fine.

I like to imagine, with some irony, people who are "victims" of the obesity epidemic, sitting on the sofa eating Cheetos and watching "The Biggest Loser" when this commercial comes on. Yeah, and they all laugh at the lame-o on the bike.

There's another TV commercial trend I've noticed - you may have, too. A meaningful percentage of the motor vehicle commercials these days show cars driving right past gas stations! Isn't that awesome?! Cars that get such good mileage, they can drive right past a gas station!

2 comments:

Clancy said...

The farmer boys just won't learn. This ad will be gone in a matter of days.

Josh said...

It would be nice to see a bicycle manufacturer run an ad that picks on people who drive cars.