Here’s an e-bike ad we can get behind… although it turns out that advertising authorities in France didn’t feel the same way.

This interesting bike-related news tidbit popped up in my feed this morning and I thought it was worth sharing. A short TV commercial for the VanMoof S3, a Dutch-made commuter e-bike, was apparently banned by an advertising authority in France. The Guardian stated that “the Autorité de Régulation Professionnelle de la Publicité (ARPP) said the ad for the VanMoof bike unfairly discredited the automobile industry,” for creating a “climate of fear” about cars. See for yourself:

In short, VanMoof’s founder refused to edit the ad in order to meet ARPP’s standards to allow it to air, and stated, “Questioning the status quo will always lead to a confrontation, but we wanted to achieve that from the beginning.” It’s a brief but impactful ad, so bravo VanMoof. I’m not suggesting that advertising, commercialism, or e-bikes are the ultimate answers, but we are in a climate emergency and pointed industry messaging like this is much needed right now.

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