{"id":15899,"date":"2014-07-04T11:04:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-04T10:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=15899"},"modified":"2014-07-04T11:04:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-04T10:04:00","slug":"asa-ruling-against-cycling-scotland-reversed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=15899","title":{"rendered":"ASA Ruling Against Cycling Scotland Reversed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in January, I reported on an ASA ruling against Cycling Scotland<\/a>. It concerned a promotional ad about giving cyclists room on the roads, and someone (five people, in fact) had complained that it was irresponsible because the rider in question wasn\u2019t wearing a helmet and was effectively blocking the road.\"You<\/p>\n

I ought to point out that my only beef with cyclists is how they get in the way, and I\u2019m increasingly of the opinion that the vast majority are stupid and do it on purpose, while the rest of them are simply stupid. Personally, I don\u2019t give two hoots about the content of these kinds of ads beyond the fact that cycling on roads shouldn\u2019t be encouraged any further because it\u2019s too dangerous for everyone concerned – cyclist and<\/strong> motorist – and there are too many cyclists venturing out on to busy roads as it is.<\/p>\n

\n

As I was writing this, I learned that a woman had been killed cycling in Nottingham after being in collision with a truck<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Anyway, actually getting to view the Cycling Scotland video isn\u2019t as straightforward as you\u2019d expect, though I\u2019m pretty sure I could view it earlier this year. Oh yes, it\u2019s on YouTube, but certainly when I follow the link I get the message shown here that I\u2019m not allowed to view it in my country!<\/strong> Strange, when you consider that it\u2019s actually been posted by Cycling Scotland (or the agency acting on their behalf), and Scotland isn\u2019t independent just yet. Clearly, someone somewhere has ideas well above their station. However, as I said in the earlier article, Cycling Scotland was appealing against the original ASA ruling. I also said that it was clear that politics was involved, and this ban on anyone in England seeing the ad is precisely the type of thing I meant.<\/p>\n

I also predicted that ASA would kowtow to Cycling Scotland, and so it has transpired in this new ruling. The original ASA page is no longer online – which is, in itself, highly suspect, as it should have been left so that the history involved was transparent.<\/p>\n

As a result of these shady goings on, I have no doubt that there are some out there who would happily attempt to sue me if I posted the full video on the blog. However, my legal adviser has indicated that a snippet of the video is completely acceptable, so here\u2019s the offending part.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/2014-07-021.flv<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

My first observation was that cyclists round my way definitely don\u2019t look like that! Most would look more at home swinging through the trees instead of gracing a catwalk. But I digress. The woman riding the bike isn\u2019t<\/strong> wearing a helmet and – more importantly – she is<\/strong> riding right in the middle of the road. The ASA originally agreed this was irresponsible advertising when they ruled against it back in January, and I guess this is one reason why they have removed that original ruling so that no one can compare it side-by-side with the new 180-degree one (i.e. one that is the exact opposite of the former). Even so, they say:<\/p>\n

We acknowledged Cycling Scotland\u2019s explanation regarding why the cyclist featured in the final scene of the ad was placed in the primary position and that this was an appropriate position to depict the cyclist in given the specific road conditions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I see. And young children will be fully aware of this and not think it\u2019s OK to ride in the middle of the road. Nice one, ASA.<\/p>\n

But this comment from Cycling Scotland really made me laugh:<\/p>\n

Cycling Scotland further commented that cycling had a high benefit:disbenefit ratio, even when factoring in injuries and referred to the national cycling charity (CTC) report.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I would counter that this statement has a high stupid:disstupid ratio, even when factoring in the obvious politics involved. The Highway Code says:<\/p>\n

66<\/strong><\/p>\n

You should:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • be considerate of other road users…<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Riding in the middle of the road, blocking traffic, putting yourself in danger, and forcing others into danger as they overtake wide (especially on country lanes, as depicted here) has been \u201coverlooked\u201d by the ASA. I wonder how much pressure was put on them to do so?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Back in January, I reported on an ASA ruling against Cycling Scotland. It concerned a promotional ad about giving cyclists room on the roads, and someone (five people, in fact) had complained that it was irresponsible because the rider in question wasn\u2019t wearing a helmet and was effectively blocking the road. I ought to point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80,86,104,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adi-related","category-bad-drivers","category-cyclists","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}