Have you seen these bikes locked up around town? They look like pretty standard beach cruisers, but in fact they're just guerrilla ads for domu.com, an apartment search site. And they've been pissing hardcore cyclists off! "They send crews out with a truck, and lock them up, and move them occasionally," wrote one cyclist on a message board at The Chainlink last month. Others vowed to boycott the site and suggested that the domu bikes should be stolen. That's when a guy from domu stepped in and, in an attempt to appease the angry mob, issued a statement titled, "bicyclists, we hear you."
to the riders: our brand ambassadors use the bikes to get around as part of their job. sometimes the bikes were left parked in spots overnight. and yes, some were left in heavily trafficked areas, where space is at a premium, and for that we apologize. at the end of the next three weeks, the brand ambassadors will not be using the bikes. therefore the bikes won't be parked anywhere, giving those spots back to you. we plan to be a part of the apartment rental community for a long time in chicago, and we hope that the bicycling community can forgive us for the misstep.That's a pretty diplomatic move, but the score still stands: Cyclists: 1, Domu: 0. UPDATED: Commenter yojoe rightly notes that Domu.com is an apartment search site, and not, as the title of this post previously suggested, a "rental agency."
· Parked bikes as advertising platform [The Chainlink]
· bicyclists, we hear you. [domu.com]
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