AdRant
Another Untimely Greyhound Ad
Given the last few rough months that Greyhound’s been having in the news, I wasn’t too surprised today when I heard a radio ad for them today driving home from the office. What did surprise me was that they carried on as if nothing had happened. After extolling the virtues of riding Greyhound, the spot finishes with something to the effect of “Why aren’t you riding Greyhound?”. I was shocked.
I don’t know whether these radio spots were in the works prior to these recent events, but for the sake of the agency that developed them, I hope they were. Given the concerns people are likely to have around bus safety, those spots are doing more harm than good. I don’t even recall if they mentioned safety, but I do remember my first thought in response to “Why aren’t you riding Greyhound?”, and I suspect most people’s reaction would be similar – “I don’t want to get stabbed or decapitated!”
Greyhound should be running a series of damage control ads much like Maple Leaf has been doing since the Listeriosis outbreak and reassuring people that its safe to take the bus - not reminding people why they’re not.
⋅ September 24, 2008
Tags: Discussion
3 comments for “Another Untimely Greyhound Ad”
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I recall seeing these ads before the stabbing incident… So I think it was unintentional. However, given the irony–the very first thing Greyhound should have done is kill all the ads and hope that nobody even remembered them!
@Kelly I think that photo confused things. It was the old ad that they pulled after the original incident – and completely unintentional. Most of my rant was targeted at the radio ads, but I did hear a similar radio ad this morning and they had nixed all but the ‘ride Greyhound’ messaging. Perhaps the ad I heard the other day was accidental on the part of the radio station.
OK That makes more sense, I was responding to the picture.. Didn’t hear the radio ads.