Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Awareness Test

London Transport is a huge government agency that runs all public transport in the City of London. The Underground (Subway) system and those familiar red double-decker buses are London Transport.

They also view bicycles as a genuine form of transport, and have put out this wonderful video. View the whole thing, including the intro; it is quite short.

Turn your sound on and DO THE TEST

My thanks to the Maltese Falcon for bringing this to my attention.


9 comments:

mander said...

That's pretty good but there are better versions of the illusion around. The bear costume wasn't particularly bearlike. In the version I saw, it was a guy in a full gorilla suit who actually beat his chest for a while in the middle of the group. Anyway, either way it's a good point to make.

Dave said...

I'm of the opinion this add is rubbish, apart from being unoriginal it just reinforces the false stereotype that cycling is both odd and unsafe.

Its will be as good as "one got fat" at encouraging cycle use. I know thats not the point this supposed to be aimed at drivers... but that is again the problem a false divide between drivers and cyclists which shouldn't exist. Education should be aimed at all road users as most cyclists are drivers too and many drivers are also cyclists.

This video would be better to play spot the cyclist with:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OYajXN4pPHI

Anonymous said...

Whether the ad is good or bad is not the point, at least London Transport is trying to bring awareness. It does also explain why cyclists at times seem to be invisible.

Tim said...

All it shows is how ridiculous it is for a cyclist to wear black. If the bear had been wearing any sort of bright clothing we would have seen it immiediatly

Anonymous said...

These comments prove that cyclists sure are cynical about the subject of getting mowed down from behind!

Anonymous said...

I love this ad! I don't think it points out that cycling is "odd or unsafe" but something that drivers are not necessarily thinking about. Hopefully ads like this will help.

Anonymous said...

I think this is a great ad. I successfully counted the passes but completely missed the bear. Point well made.

Anonymous said...

I'm a bit late, but that ad was brilliant!

Anonymous said...

Here's an interesting video along similar lines

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voAntzB7EwE