The Friday Profile: Andrew Reed, River City’s ad man on a deadline

River City Bicycles ad creator Andrew Reed in a cyclocross race.
(Photo courtesy Reed.)

He’s co-created major TV ads, like this one launching Apple’s iPad Air. He led the team that came up with Oregon Humane Society’s “End Petlessness” campaign and the concept for Oregon Public Broadcasting’s signature news show, Think Out Loud.

One year, in a gig he’s still sheepish about, he commuted weekly from California to Detroit to do ad work for Chevrolet.

But about 20 times each year for the last decade, Andrew Reed has sat down with Adobe Illustrator to put together River City Bicycles‘ quarter-page black and white ad for page 3 of Willamette Week.

“I can’t think of another bike shop in the country that does this,” said Reed, a freelance creative director who moved from Portland to Los Angeles in 2012, in a phone interview Thursday. “It’s kind of a life’s work kind of thing.”

Reed, 45, can’t remember the in-store conversation in which River City Bicycles owner Dave Guettler found out that Reed made ads for a living. He can’t even remember, until he checks his records, how long it’s been since he took the River City design gig.

Turns out it’s been 10 years.

When Guettler hired Reed in 2004, Reed was working as executive creative director at Portland-based Leopold Ketel and Partners. And, then as now, he was riding his bike. A lot.

In the years that followed, Reed and Guettler collaborated to develop the style of one of what must be one of the most interesting standing advertisement slots in the American newspaper industry.

“River City Bikes has been running ads with us for 17 years,” said Janet Norman, River City’s account executive at Willamette Week. “That doesn’t happen anywhere. They like the black and white rather than the color, which in this day and age is very unusual. … I don’t know where he comes up with these ideas, but some of them are brilliant.”

Norman said River City pays Willamette Week $600 to $800 for the same quarter-page spot every week. Reed bills Guettler by the piece.

Guettler, Reed said, often comes up with ad concepts during his bike commute from his home in Damascus to the River City shop, on Southeast Martin Luther King Boulevard in Portland.

“When I lived there, he and I would go out to lunch every other month or so, and he would share his thoughts with me and I would take them and interpret them into a little 6 by 6 ad,” Reed said.

By now, Reed said, the two operate on such a close wavelength that he usually doesn’t bother to run a new ad past Guettler. He’ll email it to Willamette Week and Guettler at the same time.

“The only reason those ads are any good is really because of Dave,” Reed said. “He’s a funny, funny person. And he understands that by promoting riding bikes — something like that — he’s helping out his shop.”

Sometimes, the ads go out of their way to avoid being pushy.

“Once a week,” a longtime tagline goes. “That’s all we ask.”

Others are edgier, like the series of silhouettes of people discussing their oil “addiction.”

Reed and Guettler go topical when they can. At one point, when Portland’s seemingly endless “bikes vs cars” sentiment seemed to reach a higher pitch than usual, this was the the ad’s response:

Then there was the ad he made one year for the Portland Mercury’s Sex Issue:

(In retrospect, Reed’s “a little embarrassed” about that one. And also “a little proud.”)

Reed, who lives near UCLA with his wife and son, doesn’t commute by bicycle right now but misses it. Instead, since he’s between major gigs, he said he tries to log 250 miles in the saddle each week to keep in shape. He says his dream gig would be to spend a year doing nothing but River City marketing work.

And also to think about his next River City ad. It’s due Friday.

“They just feel like little notes, little posters, little tiny tiny posters about how fun it is to be part of riding a bike in Portland,” Reed said. “It really comes down to: ‘It’s really fucking fun, riding a bike.’ …. As long as I’m true to the message that cycling is fun, commuting is fun, other things kind of fall out of it.”

Reed said that’s the experience he found as a customer at River City, one of the largest independent bike shops west of the Mississippi, so it’s what he tries to convey in the ads themselves: a sort of lighthearted familiarity.

“Dave makes all of the fixtures himself in his wood shop. The people that work there have been there for a long, long, long time,” Reed said. “People don’t stay at jobs that are not fun or rewarding or whatever. I think the ads are honestly an extension of that atmosphere. The ads are like smiles, you know, when you walk in. That’s what it makes you feel like.”

All images courtesy Reed and copyright River City Bicycles. Standard disclaimer whenever we write about River City’s WW ads: they’re a BikePortland advertising partner, too. We’d be writing this story even if they weren’t.

Michael Andersen (Contributor)

Michael Andersen (Contributor)

Michael Andersen was news editor of BikePortland.org from 2013 to 2016 and still pops up occasionally.

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John Lascurettes
10 years ago

Love these. I want several of them as posters.

groovin101
groovin101
10 years ago

I think the ‘love your neighbor’ one could double as a bumper sticker too.

David Feldman
David Feldman
10 years ago

I’m a bike retailing lifer and have been a cyclist and bike store hound for 45 years–River City has had the best ads I have EVER seen, consistently, for years. Remember the “Isn’t your neighbor’s life worth 10 seconds?” print ad? All of ’em just brilliant!

David Feldman
David Feldman
10 years ago

And, one thing they realize is that you must be daring in ads–the ad that offends nobody will be remembered by the same number of people.

kittens
kittens
10 years ago

always a delight to see well-writen copy!

David Guettler
10 years ago

This is one of the most fun parts about running River City- working with Andrew to come up with messages to remind people how much bikes enrich our lives. We are all so lucky to be living in Portland at this point in time- the bike culture here is like nowhere else I know of! Thanks for running this, Bike Portland

Matt
Matt
10 years ago

Cool stories like this are what keep me coming back to Bike Portland.

dwainedibbly
dwainedibbly
10 years ago

I read every issue of the Willy Week (there’s a box at my employer’s) and I always look for those ads. I love them!

Tim Hanrahan
Tim Hanrahan
10 years ago

I always look forward to these. It’s good bike citizenship. Thanks Dave and Andrew.

danny
danny
10 years ago

I’ve been away from Portland (and, sadly, my bikes) for three months, and this story made my day from halfway around the world. Great shop, and great ads that promote cycling in general. It doesn’t get any better.

Dave Miller
Dave Miller
10 years ago

http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=qGJSI48gkFc&start1=0&video2=jAN61QK0aUI&start2=0&authorName=

Andrew and Dave, could you please spoof this ridiculous ad? On the left is the original for Cadillac, on the right is Ford’s spoof. I’d love to see River City do one featuring the people who give a damn enough not to even drive a car.