February 7, 2008
DKNY Guerilla Marketing Goes from Poor Taste to Trash
Photo: Claire Houston
Curious about the fate of all those orange bikes with the DKNY website that were locked up around town? The ones the police didn’t cart away (some were illegally chained to trees) are being picked clean for spare parts. The tone deaf Fashion Week publicity stunt was presented by DKNY as an effort to promote cycling in New York, and the company did help raise awareness by, uh, distributing bicycle maps in their stores. Oh, and their website for the campaign has a photo of models riding a bike, though they’re too cool for helmets, of course.
The neon orange DKNY bikes drew heat from cyclists because the aesthetic is all-too-similar to the nationwide “Ghost Bike” campaign, which memorializes killed cyclists by locking an all-white bicycle near the scene of the accident. In an email sent out earlier, a DKNY rep wrote “we are very sorry if our well-intentioned ‘Explore Your City’ program offended anyone.” That's touching, but 'sorry' doesn't get these eyesores off the sidewalks.
DKNY has not responded to our questions about when the bikes will be removed, but it seems others are doing the job one piece at a time.
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So, they were encouraging cycling by chaining the bikes so they couldn't be ridden? Interesting theory.
And why should the models wear helmets while riding a bike? Do models wear helmets on the runway, going outside for a smoke, or running to the bathroom to throw up?
Many a road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Did they think anything else would happen?
One of our fellow posters put up a chunk of the apology letter in the previous post, and IMHO, it has a very nice "we're right, your're wrong, fuck you, we're hip, buy our clothes" tone to it.
Best was the bike I saw in Union Square that someone had just scratched out the DKNY logo, thus completely defeating the purpose.
They could have just say, distributed bikes to needy kids. Instead they do this. The city needs to go after them for this.
Talk about a posed photo. Come on people. I also saw the broken chain link on the ground, but really. Talk about some posed and "trashed" bike. The scuffed tires don't make any sense to what would really happen. What did they paint the bike with, some Crayola left over tempera paint?
BTW. Why is the bike still sitting there? I see evidence that it might have been chained (bogus as it is with the rubbed look on the lower frame) but where is the chain? What a crock of shit.
I can't wait to see the video at half time in next year's Super Bowl.
Let's review the email sent from DKNY.com (below).
Still waiting for a statement from the Mayor's office and DOT-NYC if they were or were not in on this. DKNY says they are working with both. These were brand new bikes first trashed with paint, now simply trash. Have a look at http://www.bikeblog.blogspot.com/ for more photos of orange and green bike trash. Thanks for trashing ghost bike memorials and trashing our streets Donna Karan, now get off that sign so I can lock up my bike!
"DKNY is working with the Mayor's office to raise awareness of cycling as a healthy and environmentally sound means of transportation around NYC. During Fashion Week (which runs the first week of February), DKNY has placed dozens of bright orange bicycles around the city to get people thinking…and talking about bicycles as a healthy and fashionable way to get around the city. DKNY's marketing team developed the orange bicycle campaign to support the Mayor's office ongoing efforts, in a way that would draw attention to this important initiative. We also provided financial support to help the New York City Department of Transportation raise
awareness of its initiative to build a far-reaching network of innovative designed bicycle lanes and new bicycle parking facilities while stepping up education for cyclists and drivers. We are very sorry if our well-intentioned "Explore Your City" program offended anyone. Additional information about DKNY's bicycle program is available at DKNY.com"
I was wondering that the hell that was about! Looked like an oompa loompa ghost bike memorial. Awful.
"We also provided financial support to help the New York City Department of Transportation raise
awareness of its initiative to build a far-reaching network of innovative designed bicycle lanes"
Put bike riders up on a second or third level above the street with those innovative bicycle lanes and then I can accept them. THIS AIN'T AMSTERDAM! It's bad enough that all you American tourists brought back your taste for European coffee that spawned Starbucks and now this bicycle shit?
Chinese food delivery guys are exempt from the previous request.
Snoopy, are you being sincere or is that a joke?
Snoopy is a joke. Look at his previous posts and you'll see that.
The smart pr strategy would have been to hire attractive New Yorker's of both sexes and have them ride those bikes around the city in DKNY clothes. Then just flirt, and give the bikes away to people in front of bars. Along with swank DKNY helmets (I'm seeing a limited edition SHAG helmet here...Or maybe Lori Earley) This story would have been much different, and Missed Connections would contain hundreds of 'Cute Boy/Girl all in black on DKNY bike in front of Milano'.
Spritz76 is sincerely a bad joke.
I never realized that all my posts could be consalodated (how do you spell consolidated?) into a group like that. Thanks Spritz. It's now part of my portfolio.
I can't over the bile here. Did we all read the same letter of apology? What would you have liked it to say?
Toby, what should the city go after them for?
Tim N, what part of that letter says "we're right, your're wrong, fuck you, we're hip, buy our clothes"?
I know this an emotional issue but can we have a logical discourse here that moves beyond knee-jerk anti-corporate rage?
no. fuck dkny and their shitty marketing campaign.
How about littering or dumping? If I throw garbage onto the sidewalk I would get a ticket or worse. If I dump a spray painted bike by a squad car, what would happen? Our city is not a blank wall for companies to spray paint their logos or chain up 2 wheeled ads when they run out of ideas. But, if they followed emilydickinson's advice, I could feel some forgiveness in my heart.
there is a great post on this here: http://cyclingwmd.blogspot.com/2008/02/so-im-sure-lots-of-you-have-been.html
And Critical Mass is a major disruption of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. There is such a double standard here.
Mike D: Unless I'm misunderstanding you, there's a major difference - one is a an ill-advised ad campaign that has obviously not gone over well and the other is an illegal assembly of cyclists that think it's cool to disrupt city traffic.
JP Lynch: I guess what I'm trying to say is "I don't understand how the cycling community is acting so judgmental about DKNY 'breaking the law' when organizations like Critical Mass break the law all the time."
So basically, I agree with what you've written here.