To celebrate the change in position on mandatory helmet laws from Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), in Oregon, USA, Nutcase Helmets is holding two contests!
As the BTA will start to phase out photos of riders not wearing helmets in all publicity materials. BTA Executive Director Rob Sadowsky said "We've traditionally showcased people with and without helmets. In the future, it will only be riders with helmets."
PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST
People should send in a digital photo of themselves wearing a Nutcase Helmet. There
have to be other - and only - helmeted cyclists in the photo. Whoever
has the most helmeted cyclists in a photo wins the contest, and for
every photo we receive with more than 10 helmeted cyclists Nutcase will give BTA
100 dollars. Also, it is okay to use Photoshop*.
SLOGAN CONTEST
This requires a bit of explanation: Scientific research provided the impetus for Nutcase's well-known slogan "I Love My Brain". We found out that people - not just cyclists - who do not wear helmets are self-hating, and that their most vicious malice is reserved for their "grey matter". This slogan has served us well by creating divisiveness among lovers and friends -- and we are proud that the magazines we place advertising in and retail outlets which sell our product don't seem to notice that! But we think it may be time for a new slogan to put on our helmets.
There will be two categories: Short slogans and long slogans. Short slogans have to be six words or less. The long ones will not be on the helmets themselves; they will be represented by/linked from a QR code that will be on the outside of every Nutcase Helmet starting in 2012.
Here are some examples of slogans created by our staff:
Short slogans:
"Helmet-Wearers Think"
"Real Cyclists Wear Helmets"
"This Is Not Amsterdam"
"I Am Scared Of Spiders"
Long slogans:
"In the Netherlands, nearly 100% of cyclists killed on the roads aren't wearing helmets!"
"In modern professional cycle racing, nearly 100% of cyclists killed are wearing helmets."
Rejected slogans (staff-members were terminated, also for other activities):
"I Love My Driving Helmet"**
"Proud Victim of Fear Mongering."
See the Nutcase Helmets website for more info.
Slow Factory is a proud partner of this initiative for safety and hopes to see you in Vancouver for Velo-city in 2012!
12 comments:
Wear a helmet in case the sky falls in!
Real Nuts wear Nutcase Helmets!
"Helmet-Wearers Don't Think, they believe"
Helmets are magic!
helmets enhance risky driving behavior like safe (and boring) play grounds provoke risky play behavior causing more fatal accidents then let´s say adventure playgrounds.
fight the safety mafia!
Man what bs the BTA is putting out it's similar in Berkeley, California– non-helmet wearers are scolded. The city even had a free helmet give-away recently. I find it so strange that there's high helmet usage in American cities that have 'high' cycling rates. I fear for my life biking in LA, where helmet usage is probably less than 50% on the routes I ride whereas cycling in Berkeley is a breeze and helmet usage is 60%+ on the routes I ride.
@Severin- Lots of USA cities give away free helmets.
You say cycling "is a breeze" in Berkeley -- what is the bike modal share there (I realize you might need to add Oakland etc. to get a viable figure).
How would a helmet help in scary L.A., when cars are going 35 to 45 mph and faster on shared streets? And how dangerous is it in reality?
I say it 'is a breeze' RELATIVE to Los Angeles where tension is high and I am not able to relax because of all the pressure to 'keep up' with traffic and my wish not upset motorists. Berkeley has its share of angry motorists but it's so much easier because the main roads are slower compared to LA streets (Berkeley average speed on main roads is between 25mph and 30mph whereas in LA speeds are seldom below 30mph, even on streets with 1 lane in each direction)
I've read that Berkeley has 5% of trips by bike (or perhaps that's just the commuter rate) though I suspect this is largely due to the student population. As you may know, Oakland has mode share of about 2%. The East Bay altogether has (I think) 1.6% of trips by bike.
I'm not arguing against you, I don't think helmets would help any in LA, though I do find it interesting that in American cities it seems as ridership goes up, so does helmet usage. In reality how dangerous are the roads? I cant say exactly, I'm no statistician but the streets are stressful enough for me to rather walk places simply because then I only have to deal with motorists at crosswalks.
I'd like to ad that in Berkeley you see children cycling to school (even on their own bikes and sometimes unaccompanied!). It's not an all too unusual sight, so obviously it is a HUGE step up from the conditions faced in Los Angeles, and thus 'a breeze' in comparison
Of only poor Tommy Simpson had been wearing a helmet.
My feeling is that certain companies, one of which has already been named, feel the need to periodically remind people how necessary the use of their product is (I've felt notably that I've been seeing LESS helmet usage on average around Portland lately, at least, a lower percentage), and so they saunter on over to the media outlets and the advocacy orgs with some shiny objects and suddenly the media is taking advantage of peoples' deaths to post about how stupid people are to not wear helmets and how certain people who are "anti-helmet" (meaning they don't wear a helmet themselves) are on a crusade to get people not to wear them (http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2011/08/despite_skepticism_joey_harrin.html), posting coverage stating that there is plenty of evidence to prove they are effective, but that some cyclists just can't be inconvenienced or think they are un-cool (http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/helmet-debate/) and the advocacy orgs suddenly re-arrange their position to be more helmet-friendly.
I find it hard to believe it's all coincidental.
put "Helmets Suck!" on a helmet
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