Carlton Reid of Bike Biz UK et al has been posting a number of interesting Eurobike bits (known hereinafter as Eurobitztm) including a very fun photostream on Posterous.com.
One of Carlton’s photos is of Euro helmet brand Lazer’s display, which is shown at right in all its splendor (or, in deference to Carlton, splendour).
As far as I know there’s nothing wrong with Lazer helmets, except that their sense of marketing seems to’ve been left behind in the 8th grade (sixth form, for you Anglophiles) locker room.
So exactly what– aside from some locker-room humor– is this advert trying to tell us?
The obvious intent is to pay off the make you faster tag: see, the guy got home early and caught his wife (or maybe that’s his boyfriend and the woman is just a neighbor who dropped by to borrow a cup of sugar– who knows?). But the rest of the image is so downright weird as to raise a number of doubtlessly unintended alternate interpretations:
- Just who is this guy, anyway? Apparently, he’s just come back from a training ride on his TT bike (note disc) wearing his Lazer TT helmet. But he’s wearing mufti– no logos– so he’s obviously not a sponsored rider. And he doesn’t know enough to use shoe covers. Or to take his cleats off before he marks up those nice wooden floors. Obviously he’s a poseur.
- He got home earlier than anticipated. But are Lazer claiming the helmet made him half an hour faster? No, that would be silly. So clearly, given the sexual context, the “faster” claim has to with the cyclists’ own sexual performance. No wonder the wife/boyfriend is hooking up with someone else. So, whether straight or gay, in addition to being a poseur he’s sexually inadequate. And we thought the saddle companies were in charge of that message.
- But at least the house is clean. Wait a minute. It’s not just clean– it’s empty. There’s no furniture; not even a bed, apparently. So in addition to being a sexually inadequate poser, he’s destitute. Perhaps everything’s been repossessed and he’s being evicted because the doofus spent all his money on overpriced cycling equipment. That silly Lazer TT helmet, for example.
Conclusion: This is a helmet for wankers whose sex life is in the toilet and spend all their money on cycling equipment instead.
Wait. Come to think of it, maybe that’s the perfect target audience.
September 2, 2009 at 8:54 pm |
This is hilarious, love it! The dude walking in is so thin, I actually thought it was a woman walking in on her girlfriend. Too funny!
October 8, 2009 at 7:04 pm |
[...] The bike industry has never shied away from suggestiveness. At the last industry trade show, one company tried to use a pair of blonds in a soapy scrub down for their promotional poster. And it’s a trend that’s not only going on in America; it’s been covered on a blog about Eurobike. [...]