Did you hear about this bullshit? A cycle safety advert from Scotland has been banned because it is “socially irresponsible and likely to condone or encourage behaviour prejudicial to health and safety”.
The advert, produced by Cycling Scotland, encourages drivers to treat cyclists in the same way that they would treat horse riders but the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) isn’t happy because…
“under the Highway Code it was recommended as good practice for cyclists to wear helmets. Therefore, we considered that the scene featuring the cyclist on a road without wearing a helmet undermined the recommendations set out in the Highway Code.”
and
“Furthermore, we were concerned that whilst the cyclist was more than 0.5 metres from the kerb, they appeared to be located more in the centre of the lane when the car behind overtook them and the car almost had to enter the right lane of traffic.”
I honestly don’t know what the ASA think they are doing here, the cyclists in the advert are riding legally and safely but because a couple of idiotic misled doogooders in an office who know nothing at all about cycle safety don’t like it then it’s immediately banned!
I’ll tell you this, cyclists in Scotland would be much safer if millions of drivers saw this on the TV, banning it because there’s a missing helmet is helping nobody at all. For a bit more info check out the BBC article.