DKNY Marketing Campaign Co-opts Ghost Bikes

[Noel]

http://bicycling.about.com/b/2008/02/10/dkny-marketing-campaign-co-opts-
ghost-bikes.htm

DKNY Marketing Campaign Co-opts Ghost Bikes

If you're familiar with Ghost Bikes, those impromptu memorials that pop
up to mark places where bicyclists have been struck by cars, then you can
understand why so many people are so ticked off by a recent take-off on
the ghost bikes that attempts to promote a clothing line.

Seems the marketing geniuses for DKNY -- Donna Karan New York, a mid-
range line of women's clothes -- figured that it would be an effective
ploy to paint bikes bright orange, add the DKNY website and then padlock
them all around NYC.

Regardless of whether the resemblance to the ghost bikes was intentional
or not, the backlash was immediate. The DKNY bikes were installed on
Thursday and at once began receiving attention from vandals. By Saturday
they were all gone.

 

[Mark T]

Noel writtificated

> Regardless of whether the resemblance to the ghost bikes was
> intentional or not, the backlash was immediate. The DKNY bikes were
> installed on Thursday and at once began receiving attention from
> vandals. By Saturday they were all gone.

In other words, by Saturday they'd all been nicked by common criminals (tho
that was prolly the idea).

Used to think Ghost Bikes were a good idea, but I'm now of the opinion that
they're an alarmist over reaction to a danger that isn't of the magnitude
that their proponents think it is - when cycling KSI rates are comparable
to pedestrian rates it seems strange not to have 'Ghost Peds'

Akshurly, Ghost People would be a good idea - a 'chalk' outline of a person
on the spot where someone was killed by a motor vehicle, be they
pedestrian, cyclist or even a moton themselves. It'd have to be highly
illegal permanent paint, and apart from the obvious problems of arrest they
would tend to be in areas where you'd want drivers' attention on potential
hazards rather than chalk outlines.

 

[[email protected]]

On Feb 14, 11:40 am, Mark T
<pleasegivegenerously@warmail*turn_up_the_heat_to_reply*.com.invalid>
wrote:
> Akshurly, Ghost People would be a good idea - a 'chalk' outline of a person
> on the spot where someone was killed by a motor vehicle, be they
> pedestrian, cyclist or even a moton themselves.  It'd have to be highly
> illegal permanent paint, and apart from the obvious problems of arrest they
> would tend to be in areas where you'd want drivers' attention on potential
> hazards rather than chalk outlines.

They do something like this in France, somewhere near Clermont
Ferrand. Not paint on the road, but a cardboard cut-out of a person,
roughly life size for adults, smaller for children. The only text on
them was "J'ai 40 ans" (or whatever).

I assume they mark accident sites, but I don't know how accurately
they do it. There seemed to be more of them than I would expect, so I
don't know if they trawled back a long way for data.

Anyway, they made me slow down a bit, I think they are a good idea.

Rob

 

[_]

On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:26:16 -0800 (PST), [email protected] wrote:

> On Feb 14, 11:40 am, Mark T
> <pleasegivegenerously@warmail*turn_up_the_heat_to_reply*.com.invalid>
> wrote:
>> Akshurly, Ghost People would be a good idea - a 'chalk' outline of a person
>> on the spot where someone was killed by a motor vehicle, be they
>> pedestrian, cyclist or even a moton themselves.  It'd have to be highly
>> illegal permanent paint, and apart from the obvious problems of arrest they
>> would tend to be in areas where you'd want drivers' attention on potential
>> hazards rather than chalk outlines.
>
> They do something like this in France, somewhere near Clermont
> Ferrand. Not paint on the road, but a cardboard cut-out of a person,
> roughly life size for adults, smaller for children. The only text on
> them was "J'ai 40 ans" (or whatever).
>
> I assume they mark accident sites, but I don't know how accurately
> they do it. There seemed to be more of them than I would expect, so I
> don't know if they trawled back a long way for data.
>
> Anyway, they made me slow down a bit, I think they are a good idea.
>

Near where I live there is a pedestrian crossing, beside which is a small
white cross with a nameplate fixed on, and it usually has some flowers. A
woman and her two children were crossing when an impatient or unobservant
driver ploghed through the crossing.

She only managed to grab one and pull it out of the way.

 

[Roger Thorpe]

Mark T wrote:

> Akshurly, Ghost People would be a good idea - a 'chalk' outline of a person
> on the spot where someone was killed by a motor vehicle, be they
> pedestrian, cyclist or even a moton themselves. It'd have to be highly
> illegal permanent paint, and apart from the obvious problems of arrest they
> would tend to be in areas where you'd want drivers' attention on potential
> hazards rather than chalk outlines.

This was an idea mentioned by (if not thought up by) Richard Neville (he
used to edit Oz) in the book Playpower. The original proposal was that
the culprit should carve the figure in the road and fill it with pale
cement. IIRC.
It's a good vintage radical read, but you'll probably only find it on
abebooks.
Roger Thorpe