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DKNY Guerilla Marketing Goes from Poor Taste to Trash
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 7, 2008
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 7, 2008
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Photo: Claire Houston
Curious about the fate of all those orange bikes with the DKNY website that were locked up around town? The ones the police didn’t cart away (some were illegally chained to trees) are being picked clean for spare parts. The tone deaf Fashion Week publicity stunt was presented by DKNY as an effort to promote cycling in New York, and the company did help raise awareness by, uh, distributing bicycle maps in their stores. Oh, and their website for the campaign has a photo of models riding a bike, though they’re too cool for helmets, of course.
The neon orange DKNY bikes drew heat from cyclists because the aesthetic is all-too-similar to the nationwide “Ghost Bike” campaign, which memorializes killed cyclists by locking an all-white bicycle near the scene of the accident. In an email sent out earlier, a DKNY rep wrote “we are very sorry if our well-intentioned ‘Explore Your City’ program offended anyone.” That's touching, but 'sorry' doesn't get these eyesores off the sidewalks.
DKNY has not responded to our questions about when the bikes will be removed, but it seems others are doing the job one piece at a time.
Tagged
bicycle
bike
city
cycling
dkny
fashion
fashion week
ghost bike
guerilla marketing
houston
new york
orange
promotion
publicity
The Police
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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