British Bus Service Apologizes for ‘Ride Me’ Ad Campaign
Price gag sparked international backlash
A Welsh bus service's "Ride Me All Day for £3" ad campaign has come to an abrupt stop after facing vocal criticism in social media.
The ads, featured on the back of the service's buses, featured the tagline on a sign being held by a topless man or woman.
After being posted to Reddit's "Funny" forum and shooting to the massively popular site's front page, an image of the ad campaign began making the rounds on Twitter and other social networks, as well.
@NAT_Group : please can you explain how your advert is in any way appropriate? pic.twitter.com/jII1ltKe7k
— Jo Stevens (@JoStevensLabour) May 11, 2015
Hey @NAT_Group this is a great ad to ensure none of those ghastly 'women' get on your buses. Or 'grown up men'. RT pic.twitter.com/ss011QspqV
— Tom Bennett (@tombennett71) May 11, 2015
Don't worry men, your bodies aren't immune from the sexualisation of @NAT_group either! Terrible marketing. pic.twitter.com/24KHF6LcIz
— Vicky Chandler (@VickyChandler) May 11, 2015
Today, the company said it would pull the ads. It issued the following apology on its website, as well:
In view of the reaction to our bus advertising today we wish to set out our position:
Firstly we have stated that our objectives have been to make catching the bus attractive to the younger generation. We therefore developed an internal advertising campaign featuring males and females to hold boards to promote the cost of our daily tickets.
The slogan of 'ride me all day for £3' whilst being a little tongue in cheek was in no way intended to cause offence to either men or women and, if the advert has done so then we apologise unreservedly. There has certainly been no intention to objectify either men or women.
Given the volume of negativity received we have decided to remove the pictures from the back of the buses within the next twenty four hours.
