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.

4 comments:

Anne said...

Hello! Cyclist in an American city here (Portland), new to following your blog and enjoying it very much.

That is a gorgeous piece of graphic design. Wouldn't it be cool if they actually did deliver by bike? Dense urban core areas are perfect for that kind of bike-based business.

I'd hate to see bicycling images used cynically to capture a perceived "fashionable" market of young, hip, fit people, but, as you say, positive images of everyday people on bikes are a good thing for cycling.

ibikelondon said...

Hi Anne, great to hear from you, thanks for stopping by and I'm really thrilled you're enjoying it.

I agree, cycle deliveries are a great business model for urban areas - so much cheaper than paying for automobiles and all their associated costs to deliver, and usually faster too.

I think images of cycling are used in a cynical way to promote business agendas in quite a few instances (I've even seen bikes used to sell cars - go figure) but I thought in this instance the graphic was so nice it was worth sharing.

Do stop by again soon!

Mark

Freedom Cyclist said...

brilliant - love the image, love your blog (also love curry!)

ibikelondon said...

Sue, I live within spitting distance of the best curry house in London - should you find yourself in London let me know and we'll go for a ride followed by a big curry!