Thursday, February 07, 2008

Donna Karen Gets Her Just Reward

In a uncouth and ridiculous manner, DKNY sought to promote their brand for the much-hyped (in NYC) fashion week by placing neon orange bikes around the city. At first they looked like a smart way for people to lock up their bikes so as to not get stolen (at least during the day). Then the news came that it was marketing technique. As odd as that is, DKNY is shown to be completely tasteless when you compare them to the Ghost Bike campaign, an organization that memorializes those that lost their lives while riding.

By illegally chaining some of these orange bikes to city property, not only do they get hauled away by NYC, but it also increases the chances that NYC will crack down on Ghost Bikes as well. So what did DKNY have to say for themselves?

From The Gothamist:

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.