This corporate miscue is using up a lot of one's and zero's on the interweb tonight, but it's so egregious that I will re-post it. Thanks to League of American Bicyclists for the source information.GM Blunders onto Campus
If you are a student looking to add tens of thousands of dollars of long term debt, care little about the environment, and want to lump two tons of steel around campus while paying through the nose for insurance, gas, and parking…General Motors has got a perfect deal for you. Bonus: it’ll make you fat and unhealthy! All you have to do is give up that dorky bicycle that’s easy to use, practically free, gets you some exercise and is actually fun to ride.
In one of the more remarkably ill-conceived car ad campaigns of all time, good corporate citizen GM is heading to campus to actively stop you from riding a bike by trying to make it look like it sucks. Obviously it’s been a while since GM execs and their creative teams set foot on campus. Anyway, I’m sure the campus facilities people will love having to add thousands of extra car parking spaces on campus at $30,000 a pop (who needs more buildings to learn in anyway, lets fill campus with parking structures); and University Presidents will have a little bit of explaining to do when it comes to those end of year climate and greenhouse gas targets… Maybe it’ll generate more business in the gym where students can drive in to go and ride on stationary bikes. Hope there’s enough parking.
In case you were wondering, GM has a fine-sounding corporate responsibility statement – carefully crafted by the best in the business, I’m sure. One sample quote: “As a responsible corporate citizen, General Motors is dedicated to protecting human health, natural resources and the global environment.”
And if you wanted to send a quick note to Chevrolet or GMC, there are instructions on how to do that.I am happy to see The League take a little more confrontational approach on this one. I am all for education and working with elected officials for the betterment of the world through bicycles, but occasionally something so off-base comes out that calling the offender out and issuing a call to action is the best response.
Well done, Bike League of America. And the good news: GM is getting totally roasted on their FB page right now for this.
General Motors? Those sons of bitches who bought up scads of municipal trolley and streetcar systems in the 1920s through the 1950s pledging to operate the systems and then tore the tracks up, forcing people to . . . BUY CARS? THAT General Motors? We're already accquainted, and I see that they're still up to their old tricks. . .
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