I can't imagine any city is too excited to have these bikes crop up. Remembering what an unsuccessful campaign it was in Chicago (taking up previous bike rack space), I find it surprising they just keep trying to use this same tactic to promote the gym. I didn't initially see the comparison to ghost bikes but can I understand why people would not want to see the orange bikes around if they are making that connection.

The wheels came off the guerrilla marketing campaign before it even got on a roll.

A ploy to drum up buzz about a new fitness centre in London fell flat and has been removed after complaints mysterious orange bikes used in the campaign were offensive to the memory of dead cyclists.

You may have seen the bicycles, spray-painted neon orange, mainly in south London, and wondered what the heck they were.

About a dozen popped up mid-week, inspiring conversations around water coolers and on social media. That’s exactly what the company behind the campaign wanted.

“It’s one of the guerrilla marketing campaigns we use,” said Hifa Maleki, senior director of operations for Orangetheory Fitness Canada.

But some in London drew comparisons to so-called ghost bikes, spray-painted white and displayed as memorials to cyclists hurt or killed on city streets.

After seeing complaints on social media, the London franchisee quickly backpedalled, Maleki said.

“We react on a case-by-case basis,” she said from the company’s Canadian head office in Edmonton. “We’re very sensitive to (ghost bikes). We’re not just going to leave it and say, ‘Hey, at least people are talking about it.’ We don’t want to take anything away from ghost bikes. Just because it worked in 98 per cent of markets doesn’t mean it will work everywhere.”

Full Story:

http://www.lfpress.com/2016/01/29/marketing-campaign-using-orange-b...