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news
pinarello e-bike 2.JPGPinarello apologises for sexist e-bike advert
Italian bike brand Pinarello has apologised for a sexist advertisement in which it suggested that women buy its new Nytro electric bike to be able to keep up with their boyfriends.
A post on Instagram earlier this week showed a picture of a woman with the caption: "I've always wanted to go cycling with my boyfriend but until now it seemed impossible. Soon anything will become possible."
The post was met with outrage on social media, and with some pointing out that the theme was also reinforced in Pinarello's press release accompanying the launch, which read:
Nytro aims at a wide target, from the one that has no time to train but would never miss a weekend ride with friends, to women who would like to follow easily the men’s pace, or even the ones who desire to experience cycling as a new way of life, climbing easily and going downhill safely, enjoying every single minute on the bike.
Many pointed out the obvious - that often, it's men who need to keep up with women.
For sale: 1x Pinarello track bike, has beaten men in races, motor not included https://t.co/N4qX2zVdea
— Christine Robson (@christinerobb0) November 22, 2017
Posting again to Instagram, Pinarello said: "Our recent Nytro advertisement failed to reflect the values of diversity and equality that are core to Pinarello. The Nytro is designed to make cycling accessible to more people and our advertisement clearly failed to convey that message. We sincerely apologize and have pulled the ad from all channels."
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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25 comments
Ad agency to be congratulated! There's no such thing as bad publicity.
all Pinarello needed to do was pay a licence fee for the GCN video of e-bike vs road bike - best ad for e-bikes ever
This is blown out of proportion. There is nothing sexist whatsoever about saying that there are women who are not physically capable of keeping up with men. Of course there are men who are not capable of keeping up with women but that doesn't make the first statement untrue either.
if pinarello had said something like 'women now have a chance to keep up with men' I could understand the upset. however they've used a statement of one individual which reflects the same position held by many others, my own spouse included. I guarantee there would not have been this reaction if it had been a male saying they can now keep up with their girlfriend/boyfriend.
Well said. Look at any climb times and the differences are massive at pro level.
Advertising seems to like depicting men as bumbling, fat, dopes most of the time. Imagine if it where the other way round.
So.... why didn't they do that? Sexist, misoginistic males, that's why. It's a sexist ad and only a sexist wouldn't see that - Pinarello marketing included.
It seems silly that they did have to try and pick individual stories, surely common sense would have told Pinarello that it would be likely to backfire?!
They should have just done the usual marketing thing, stick someone on the bike (in fact, you don't even need a person there) and just use some silly marketing phrase, i.e. "when you want that extra boost".
Here's one way to market an e-bike.
https://www.brompton.com/Brompton-Electric
People seem to want to go through a lot of hassle to be offended.
This is just a warning for husbands who like to escape from the slavery of their wife on two wheels!
Get back to the 19th century, where you will feel comfortable on your boneshaker.
I wanted to get my wife an E Bike earlier in the year but she was having none of it, so on the days we ride together I just have to get quietly frustrated at the slow pace and frequent stops. Fine as we don't tend to be riding far together. She is quite happy doing the rides she does, that makes me happy and I am patient really.
But lets be honest here, (all other things being equal) women ride slower than men in most cases. This is why in racing (and nearly all sports) we have different competitions.
If we have women and men competing in the same races all the time (for the same prizes), the number of women racing would quickly drop. You can't have your cake and eat it. Take a good look at Strava, how many times is the QoM even close to the KoM.
Pinarello are just being realistic in what they see as one of thier potential market places. I think that some people take offence too easily (on other peoples behalf).
Indeed our 'club' by which I mean random gathering of cake fans has a multitude of different aspirations and paces. Last year 3 of us were going up Ventoux whilst an ex-runner had her first road bike in February. You can accomodate if you're with like minded people - we'd often do hill reps for an hour before the main ride.
On the other hand, my 11 year old daughter wants to do some rides next year (not suggesting you'd put her on an e-bike doing 20mph) and diabetes is going to take my feet at some point. As a 'club' we could potentially justify having a team e-bike and it could get se most of the year - each persons reason would be their own and not really an issue in terms of "I want an ebike because..." man/woman old/young debate...
Condone what?
Has no female ever wanted to go cycling with her husband/significant other but feel he'd be too quick? From the previous post there is at least one, and someone saying they'd consider an ebike if they aged. In fact, if the bio is in the link, just click on it and see if this is what she used it for. If no, they're lying and report them to the ASA, if she's used it then it's accurate.
As for the marketing agency, they will have sent the idea back to Pinarello for sign off...
My other half often feels very put off when cycling with me. Despite the fact that she has a list of QOM's the length of my arm and I no longer have a single KOM, she can't keep up with me (particularly on hills).
She'd never have an electric bike for the point of keeping up with me though - I just cycle at whatever speed suits her when we cycle together.
You made a good point about the cyclist in the advert though. If it is the case that she genuinely said (says) that and she genuinely rides an ebike to match the pace of a faster other half (or whatever), then Pinarello haven't really done anything "wrong".
If nothing else, this is very lazy marketing - they should sack their agency if it's the best they can come up with and sack their board if they condone it.
Do you mean fitter or faster?
Faster (corrected my post!).
Depends how you define fitness I guess. In terms of FTP, generally, like for like a male would have a higher FTP and therefore be faster. But both the male and the female could be at the same level of fitness when compared with peers of the same sex.
FTP is only one measure here... W/KG is more important in terms of keeping up on a hilly ride.
I've cycled with a few ladies on Alpine tours who were great on the hills... steady and well paced. It was I that needed the eBike!
Disagree, they showed a couple of examples where it may have been useful. To cross the t's and dot the i's they could have shown a commuter (probably off their target market) or someone recovering from injuries but that's ticking too many boxes...
That backfired for Pinarello.
In terms of statistics, they aren't wrong.
Generally, when comparing cyclists of a similar age and cycling experience males will generally be faster. The same is true for age, generally, the younger cyclists are faster.
Before anyone has a go at me I emphasize that this is generally true statistically.
I'm in my early 20s and I'm male - I've been absolutely destroyed when trying to hold the wheel of cyclists twice my age (and not necessarily the same gender).
Pinarello managed to stigmatize slower cyclists in my mind, so, as marketing, this is a massive fail and is patronising.
Pinarello weren't using statistics they were using sexist and ageist sterotypes.
Yeah, they didn't advertise it well at all.
I'm not sure how I'd go about marketing an ebike to be honest. I imagine the target market is older cyclists losing their fitness who want to keep up with their mates - it's very hard to market this as something desirable.
I'd easily buy an electric bike if I carry on with my hour-long, hilly commute long term and if ebikes were limited to 20mph not 15.
The problem is 55 isn't old. Lots of people particularly guys take up exercise in their 50s as they have less family commmitments plus have known people who have dropped dead.
Anyway I'm sure I've seen an ebike advert aimed at older people who were clearly past retirement age stating that they are slowing down as why they were using one.
Another common scenario used in ebike adverts.
Yeah the law can be a fustrating sometimes.
Please tell me that isn't really a problem
I know someone who wanted an e-bike because she wanted to be out and at least try to be on a bike instead of feeling sorry for herself because she lost her fitness through cancer.
It's not about getting old, it's about enablement. I'd want one if I was in the same position and I am not old. I want the feeling of freedom to be on two wheels and carry on enjoying cycling with a bit of assistance.