On curry, chicken shops and cycles

Here in the East End of London we have more than our fair share of fast food takeaways - Pizza, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese and a plethora of fried chicken shops - you name it, we've got it. Indeed, so infamous are our ubiquitous famous-brand-imitating chicken shops there has even been articles about them in our national press. (Cheap fried chicken as a vehicle for a discussion about race and class anyone?) And so it is that every day my post box is overrun with take out menus - on average we receive about 15 a week, which usually head straight to the recycling bin.

But one recently caught my eye, and I thought I'd share it with you all.

This company doesn't deliver by bicycle but uses an eye catching well designed graphic of a cyclist in a turban delivering someone's lunch. What, I hear you ask, has this got to do with cycling in London?! Well, it's just one of a number of instances I've seen recently of bicycles in advertising in the UK - and like chipping away at a very big block - every mainstream positive image of cycling is helping the bike to become everyday and ordinary in our urban centres again. There’s a lot of potential cyclists out there (i.e. everyone) as I alluded to when I discussed the public face of cycling. If just one takeaway lover gets the above advert pushed through their door, and on seeing it thinks of cycling as an activity that they too could do instead of it just being the reserve of hobbyists and sportspeople (and perhaps instead of ordering a takeaway!) that’s a good thing in my books.