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news
ridesmart"Don't be a stupid twat", says new 'safety campaign'
Everyone seems to be talking about cycle safety right now, what with the injuries to both Bradley Wiggins and Shane Sutton over the past week. But London-based ad firm Karmarama have taken it upon themselves to solve the problem with a simple message: Don't be a stupid twat.
Because apparently, that's the root of the problem. "Every year in this country there are around 19,000 reported cycling accidents on our roads, and on average 3,000 cyclists who are killed or seriously injured," their website, www.ride-smart.org, states. No argument there, it's a sobering statistic.
"Cyclists riding like stupid twats cause a percentage of these accidents so lots of accidents, injuries and deaths could therefore be avoided," it then goes on to say. And helpfully lists the most twattish things you can apparently do, which in order of twattishness are jumping red lights, cycling with headphones, not having lights at night and just "being stupid".
As well as their website, which loops videos of daft and dangerous behaviour by various riders, Karmarama have helpfully put up signs around London with limericks describing the deaths of fictional cyclists due to their behaviour.
There's so much wrong with this approach it's difficult to know where to start. But we have to start somewhere, so let's start with the fact that it's a huge exercise in victim blaming. The campaign links actual scenarios where cyclists are being killed – mostly it talks about being hit by lorries – directly with rider behaviour, and at no point talks about the responsibilities of other road users, as if it's rider behaviour that's the sole issue.
It's not. Analysis of the causes of collisions resulting in death or serious injury to cyclists shows that one in four accidents resulting in death or serious injury to a cyclist are due to the cyclist being struck from behind. The top bugbear on Ride Smart's list, red light jumping, accounts for just 2% of injuries.
Chris Peck of CTC told The Guardian at the time of the above report: “The main cause of crashes seems to be 'failed to look properly', whereas very few cyclists are injured or killed acting illegally, such as failing to use lights at night or disobeying traffic signals. We believe that the government should now focus on tackling the causes of injury which appears to be mainly inconsiderate and dangerous driving. Reduced speed limits, stronger traffic law enforcement and cycle-friendly road design are the solutions."
The campaign, if we can call it that, is also massively divisive in that it works to reinforce the prejudices that many people have – including, we'd suggest, the people that cause most danger to cyclists – about the behaviour of bike riders. The more people that think that deaths of cyclists on the road are due to simple twattery on the part of those killed, the less likely they are to look at their own behaviour. That's not good.
There's so much more, but we'll sign off with a quick note that any campaign based largely around limericks should probably employ a copywriter that can do good ones. And leave the last word to Mark Ames from top London cycling blog ibikelondon, who said of the campaign, ""The message that all road users should take care is no bad thing, but this 'campaign' – which has been seemingly dreamt up by the advertising agency Karmarama - is so uncomfortably ill-thought out, ham-fisted and juvenile it leaves one wondering if they left the work experience kids in charge of the 'Publish' button?
"It wouldn't be so bad if it existed only online but the installation of these badly written limerick signs in public spaces serves not only to perpetuate the myth that cyclists are responsible for their own demise, but also could cause genuine distress to those of us who have witnessed real cycling crashes on London's dangerous roads and who might come across these by accident. If I was an advertiser I'd be checking my brand was safe in the hands of Karmarama if this is the best they can come up with. On the other hand if this is supposed to be some kind of not so clever stunt then sadly, in the week that the 12th cyclist to die in London in 2012 passed away, it's just not terribly funny."
Karmarama, who have so far been likened to Nathan Barley and fictional Twenty Twelve PR firm Perfect Curve by the bike congnoscenti, have a mantra: Work hard, Be nice to people, Play ping pong. This phoned-in and frankly ridiculous publicity stunt seems to fail on all three counts... unless they were playing ping pong when they dreamed it up, that is. We wouldn't put it past them.
Karmarama limerick competition
Write a limerick detailing what you think of the campaign and stick it in a comment below. A pair of socks to the winner! We'll judge it when the fuss has died down.
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
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76 comments
all the hallmarks of another Paul Dacre Daily Mail campaign. Yesterday they were slurring the reputations of abused children and blaming them for the problems at the BBC, today it's our turn. I'm surprised they haven't used the footage of Jimmy Saville riding a bike to tar all cyclists with that brush too!!!
An adman at karmarama.com might
Anonymously make a new website
To tell London's cyclists
That they're a stupid and take risks
When the whois makes clear who's the shite
An adman from trendy Shoreditch
Came up with the following pitch:
'It's the riders, we'll claim,
Who are mostly to blame
When they're hurt - because life's just a bitch.'
Deleted
I think the copyright infringement is a pretty serious issue too, add to that they've put the videos up as creative commons, something which they have absolutely no right to do.
The owner of the footage decides the licensing, not a PR firm who steal.
Mmmm something appears to have happened to their website? Having second thoughts maybe?
Karmarama recently moved from Kensington to Farringdon. Many of their employees are cyclists (there was always loads of bikes in their yard). Surely the chance of getitng run over was worse out West? Their PR arm, Cream is respectable too, so I really don't understand this move. A misjudged move from an otherwise creditable agency; hopefully a one-off. Someone has funded it at the end of the day, so would like to understand who that was.
website is down - but there is always the cached pages! http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bfV8m-kpT28J:ride-s...
Here are the videos http://www.youtube.com/user/tzvister?feature=watch
In the battle between car and bike,
Karmararma gave invective a hike.
Their position was shameless -
"The car driver is blameless".
Twats? Check the mirror, more like.
I reckon these signs will make a great joke memento in a garage or bike shed, must remember to 'pick one up' next time I'm in London..
(..which most of the time is when I'm working with a graphic/branding agency who are too good at what they do and in tune with the cycling world to come up with something like this!)
Cyclegaz has no video's up there, just Premises187 and SonOfTheWinds left and if they report the copyright, the youtube account will be closed aswell
wearing headphones is the least likely cause of a splat
but some advertising guy put up a sign calling me a twat
think i'll shove his ping pong ball up his arse for that
Site's gone now. Chalk another one up to outraged Twitter users.
More copyright's have been filed with youtube, Don't expect the account to be around for long.
Mess with cyclist's and lose your whole account and your website
There once was a prat named CHRIS,
who decided to take the MICHAEL,
his victim blaming site, karmarama,
has a caused a cycling drama
http://wheelspedalsperson.posterous.com/not-that-smart
Traffic Droid aka SonOfTheWinds has this to say on it
https://twitter.com/SonOfTheWinds/status/268121945504104449
"A pact with the devil was made"
Karmarama told Hickling and Slade.
"No one cares when they cycle"
Said Dunning to Michael,
"Steal content. Abuse them. Get paid!"
A group of new media muckery
with master degrees in dumb-f*ckery
blamed cyclists for their bad luckery
well f*ck 'em and their coke-snorting w@nkery
Seriously though, I would like to know who's funded/commissioned this - that could be very revealing.
Also, some riders do behave like twats - if we sit here and try and defend the idiots we'll be on a hiding to nothing.
Oh, and they can be contacted using the form at:
http://www.karmarama.com/#/contact
Perhaps you would like to explain some things to them...
A dangerous company! Lets hope they go under; before they do some serious damage!
Before anyone says : But the work force will all lose their jobs! WELL TOUGH.
Bad Karma
The UCI was very upset
No one was believing as yet
so plan they did hatch
bike riders minds to snatch
but Karmarama only caused regret
Ad boy Karmarama ran a campaign,
Intelligent comment would've been a real pain,
So instead of checking facts,
They just called us all twats,
That's just pathetic and lame!
In view of developments -
Karmarama decided to try,
To help stop our cyclists die,
Dreamt up a campaign,
Did not engage brain,
Said sorry and ate humble pie.
Cars and lorry's (sic) are made of metal
Couldn't even be bothered to proof read it?
When Shoreditch became self-aware,
Some tarts began feigning to care,
About deaths on the road,
Through all media nodes,
To people with an understanding of the empirical evidence pertaining to collisions resulting in serious injury or death it was quite unfair.
No limerick I'm afraid. I just want to know who is funding this campaign? I think it unlikely that Karmarama are paying for it themselves.
Karmarama specialise in PR,
Give priority to people in their car,
They really dont like,
People who ride a bike,
They've got the worst reputation by far.
Maybe we could have versions of Radiohead's "Karma Police" too.
Karmarama? Arrest this man
He talks in rhymes
Pity they don't scan...
The word twat: It is a vulgar synonym for the human vulva.
Stupid Cant's
Totally unacceptable on any level
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