Scion has pulled an ad that referred to people riding bicycles as “obstacles.” The ad, which we highlighted on July 11th, had a fighting theme and the “King of the road” was its tC model sportscar.
Over the weekend, a reader pointed us to a blog post on Scion.com (which seems to be incorrectly dated to July 2nd), where the company addressed the concerns about the ad and announced its removal:
Scion sincerely apologizes to members of the bicycling community that might have been offended by a recent advertisement. It was certainly not our intention to do so as Scion has great respect for bicyclists. Scion is sensitive to your opinion and in response, has made the decision to remove the advertisement.
Your feedback is appreciated as it is through communications such as yours that we become aware of our customers’ expectations and reactions. It also provides us with valuable insight when developing future advertising strategies.
If you have any further questions or comments, call us toll free at 1-866-70-SCION, Monday-Friday 5am-6pm PST and Saturdays 7am-4pm PST.
Thank you for your interest in Scion.
We’re happy to see this ad pulled. There’s enough tension and anger between road users already. The last thing we need is a car company making it seem like some sort of game where the victory goes to the most aggressive and strongest player.