Friday, 29 March 2024
News

Bike business marketing stunt backfires over sexism claim. Again.

We won’t fully know what Jeffsy – a marketing campaign from YT Industries – is for another 28 days, but it appears that, despite no firm launch, the campaign has already backfired in the bike world.

“Whatever this is an advert for, whatever or whoever JEFFSY is, it’s not for women, is it?” said Singletrack columnist Hannah Dobson.

That’s been echoed on social media with some gusto as the release of the video also coincided with International Women’s Day. In recent times Maxxis, Colnago, SixSixOne and Save Our Soles have also had marketing efforts backfire in similar rows – most of which have since apologised or removed the media from circulation.

Is this a case of all publicity is good publicity? We suspect it may not be, unless there’s a big plot twist in the story. The promo video is below for anyone who’d like to assess for themselves whether the campaign will be a success or not.

For tips on the dos and dont’s of marketing to female cyclists we fully recommend reading guest columnist Chris Garrison’s piece on gender equality.

Related: “It’s not just a boys game” – Liv Founder Bonnie Tu talks exclusively to CyclingIndustry.News about growing a women’s only brand and facing opposition from “traditional” bike industry folk.