NEW YORK CITY: Bike Tour Group Pulls Ad Campaign That Features Flames

Gothamist reports:

"We had these ads all over the city, and beginning today, the MTA is removing all of them," the organization's CEO Ken Podziba told us this morning, adding that the decision to pull the ads was a no-brainer. "We were getting phone calls and emails from people who thought the ads were inappropriate and we agreed. The last thing in the world we want to do is offend anybody in a time of tragedy." The ride, to take place on May 5th starting in Lower Manhattan, means that Bike New York won't have time to pull together a different ad campaign—which Podziba said is just fine. "It will probably be blank, which I guess is a message in and of itself," he said, referring to the spots on the subways previously occupied by the posters.

Such unfortunately themed ads have been pulled many times in the past after national tragedies, but sometimes publications have already gone to press with no chance to withdraw the campaigns. Many years ago I posted a couple of ads that I pulled out of New York City magazines just days after 9/11.  As I noted at the time, there is no doubt that the folks at Cunard and JetBlue were besides themselves in anguish.