Mea culpa from Pinarello over its sexist and ageist ads

Pinarello has apologised for two Instagram postings it made earlier this week. The postings – promoting the Italian company’s new carbon road e-bike – were slammed on social media for being sexist and ageist.

"The Nytro is designed to make cycling accessible to more people and our advertisement clearly failed to convey that message," said a statement released on Pinarello’s Twitter account.

“Our recent advertisement failed to reflect the values of diversity and equality that are core to Pinarello,” the company added.

"We sincerely apologize and have pulled the ad.”

The posting was released on Monday and featured photos of a young woman and an older man. The woman was portrayed as saying: “I’ve always wanted to go cycling with my boyfriend but it seemed impossible. Soon everything will become possible.” The ad for the older man suggested a carbo road e-bike would enable him now to keep up with his younger friends.

As reported on BikeBiz yesterday, both ads were met with derision on social media. Even the BBC had carried a story about the debacle.

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