GM's New Ad "Stop pedaling... start driving"

Recently over twitter there was lots of negative feedback regarding this recent ad by General Motors on student newspapers across the United States. Bike Portland had a reaction as did The League of American Bicyclists. GM issued an apology, but as any outraged group of people, it is never enough.

Seriously, is this what we've come to? Are cyclists going to turn into "THAT" group? One who overreacts to anything that doesn't promote what they're into? As a cyclist myself, I take offense to people and groups who oppose promoting safety for cyclists on the road... but an ad? I would think we'd have better things to do. Memo to all outraged: GM is in the business of selling cars! this is what they do! If you don't like it, don't buy a GM... or a car.

Furthermore, their ad, while not well done or thought out, is dead on... The first thing I wanted when I got to college was a car. Wait what? Yes, I played hockey and no bicycle was going to get me and all of my gear from point A to point B. It also came in handy when I wanted to take my dog everywhere... he went everywhere with me and typically you have to drive to get to the hiking trail. Not everyone lives in Southern California where the weather is perfect all year-round... my car came in handy when the weather was bad too. While I could find a lot more examples, I'm pretty sure that we can all come to the conclusion that a car is just a necessary evil.

Oh, and about getting into debt, If your main concern is to not have any debt, you'd skip college altogether (student loans anyone?). And just like we often don't want us, the good cyclists, to be associated with the bad cyclists, let's not do the same by assuming that just because someone has a car (in college or out of college) he or she is fat and unhealthy.