Our intrepid NYC informant, ex-bike messenger and publisher, Bucky Turco, points us to another ad campaign that has latched onto bike messenger street cred. Just a short time ago, Lincoln used real bike messenger’s names without permission to promote their SUV. This time, Coors Lite has used bike messenger imagery on a large, lower Manhattan billboard. The billboard shows the messenger riding along, scraping ice off the billboard.
Turco tells us the ad looks OK until you look more closely and, if you know anything about bike messengers, things are a bit off. “At least they didn’t make the mistake Lincoln made by actually trying to co-opt real bike messengers. It seems Coors was content with a softer, safer, and extremely unrealistic looking courier. Kudos to the art director for adding the dirt patterns on the messenger bag, too bad they missed the clothes and fingernails.”
While most of us might not notice these details, to a bike messenger, they seem to be important. Turco was a bit put off by the way the messenger in the ad was portrayed saying, “…what self respecting bike messenger rides through the city without a lock and chain around his waist? Don’t worry we won’t get into the fingerless gloves, goofy helmet, and J-crew like model.”
