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news
Emirates ad Sydney (cropped, source Bicycleadagio on Twitter).PNGHelmet 'added' to image of Amsterdam cyclist for Australian ad campaign
An advertising campaign in Australia for the UAE-based airline Emirates has attracted derision on Twitter – because it depicts an Amsterdam cyclist who according to people who have seen the poster in person has clearly had a helmet placed on her head with the help of Photoshop or similar software.
Twitter user @BicycleAdagio posted a picture of the advert to Twitter, with other users of the social network saying that they had also seen it in Perth and Brisbane.
Emirates ad on a bus stop in Sydney. Yes, that's a photoshopped helmet on a cyclist in Amsterdam. pic.twitter.com/tKrJwWtU7p
— Stephen B (@BicycleAdagio) June 15, 2016
The Dutch capital, of course, has among the highest modal shares of cycling in the world and among people who use bikes as a means of transport, those who wear helmets are in a tiny minority.
In Australia, cyclists are required by law to wear a helmet, with those who go bare-headed in New South Wales facing a fine of A$319 (£166).
The soft focus of the image posted to Twitter means it’s hard to determine for sure whether or not the image has been manipulated, but user @geoff_tewierik wrote: “Saw one of these joke ads from @emirates in Brisbane the other day too. Clueless marketing department.”
Another user, @cyclingtiger, said: “Sadly I suspect that this is because it's cheaper to photoshop than to put up with angry complaints about helmetless riding.”
Assuming the image was indeed altered, that may have been done so as not to fall foul of the country’s advertising watchdog.
Last year, Australia’s Advertising Standards Board upheld a complaint against a television advert for a health club which included footage of two women riding a tandem without helmets.
The advertiser, Fernwood Fitness Centre, argued amongst other things that the women were riding on private property and were not therefore required by law to wear helmets.
In considering whether the advertisement did indeed breach health and safety guidelines, the watchdog said:
The Board noted that community standards are very clear on the issue of health and safety whilst riding a bicycle and considered that a depiction of an adult riding a bicycle without a helmet is a depiction which is in breach of these community standards.
In the current advertisement the Board noted that the two women on the bicycle are not wearing safety helmets. The Board noted the advertiser’s response that the advertisement was filmed on private property. The Board noted that the women are depicted riding on a footpath adjacent to a road and considered that it is not obvious that this area is private therefore the most likely interpretation is that the women are riding on a road-related area.
Upholding the complaint, it added:
Overall the Board considered that the advertisement did depict material contrary to prevailing community standards on health and safety.
The advertiser subsequently edited the spot to remove the offending footage, which lasted just 3 seconds.
While in part the Advertising Standards Board’s decision was based on the fact that it wasn’t clear whether or not the women riding the tandem were on the public highway, what is abundantly evident from the Emirates poster is that the cyclist isn’t in Australia at all.
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.
Latest Comments
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The old 'I didn't mean to kill them with my motor vehicle' dodge- never fails!
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71 comments
Separate issue but no I do not thinks that ads should encourage people to go abroad and do things that would be illegal in that country either.
My word, forget the dodgy sex tourism, we must crack down on those Dutch "encouraging" the people of Australia, desperate to experience helmet free riding to come to their country.
The word is portray, you portray a destination as it is, or you don't. You don't get your crayons out and draw all over it if you don't like something about it. That deserves rich mocking for its idiocy.
So your example is to use something that would be illegal for a tourist to do?
What's unlawful about riding a bike without a helmet in Amsterdam?
But of course we must respect local sensitivities. For example, a few years ago Microsoft photoshopped some of its marketing materials for the Polish market, someone thought there could be a small problem with the original. And everyone respected that, and at no point burst out laughing at the clusterfuck of stupid.
Such adverts are completely unacceptable. This has nothing to do with seatbelts.
Plenty of car adverts tell me to drive over the speed limit for a built-up area, on the wrong side of the road (for the UK)
That's not really the point, here, is it. This isn't an ad for an object which comes with built-in safety features.
The advertiser, an airline, is depicting an activity familar to many Aussies, in a foreign destination. The service being advertised is not the activity, or the object in the image, or the foreign destination - but the ability to get you there and make that activity a reality.
They didn't have to show that activity. They didn't have to show it being performed with debatable (and unrealistic, given Dutch helmet uptake) safety equipment. They didn't have to doctor an image to fit a controverisal set of rules that only apply in the home market. That's what's controversial and worthy of ridicule - and that's what is the news item, not 'Emirates sells stuff'.
Look at this from another perspective; Qantas shows a Brit scuba diving in the underwater technicolour paradise of the Great Barrier Reef - you can't get the same experience in the UK and you'd understand exactly what that image is conveying. Their smartest advertisers could probably have that scuba diver turn out to be a pompous Pom twat who deliberately misses points, lecturing all the other tourists and wildlife of the Reef about exactly how they should be treating the Reef until the Reef becomes a grey shadow of its former self.
That might look like Eden to you, but many would find that image worthy of ridicule. That would be the story.
If they were advertising bI cycles you may have a point. This is more similar to an advert in saudi arabia for trips to London where they photosshop burkas onto every woman in the shot.
If they don't want to depict a cyclist not wearing a helmet, then maybe they should pick a different image of Amsterdam.
Last paragraph of the article says it all really: it looks as if the Australian government doesn't want Australian people to realise that not every country thinks that mandating helmet use is the way to go... that an Australian in Amsterdam is not obliged to wear a helmet.
Aussies, with a government like yours, who needs enemies? Not even the poms would be this stupid.
Way to go Australia, making something as pure innocent (and safe) as riding a push bike into a regulation strewn pain in the ass. The Dutch must be completely bemused by all this.
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