A First Look At Coca Cola Dublin Bikes – Do You Agree?

We all remember when the Dublin bikes first arrived in Dublin and were greeted with huge scepticism. Wasn’t it too wet here? Wouldn’t we all throw them into the river? Well far from being a disaster it has changed the city with Dubliners coming to love their bikes. A couple of weeks ago it was announced that a new sponsor had been found and today the blue bikes that we all know and love are changing.

New Bikes Are Here

Coca Cola won the tender to sponsor the bikes and just this morning they have been popping up around the city. It is their Coke Zero brand that is now emblazoned on the back of bikes across the city.

That was fast. Dublin Bikes are now branded. I want a free @CocaCola everytime I use one. #ta pic.twitter.com/G66FM7O8kT

— Keith Cycling V (@CyclingVillage) June 27, 2014

Funding Growth?

While many will complain that this is a bad sponsorship, the simple economic fact is that the money will help the bikes roll out across the city to more locations. That is how this sponsorship was pitched and in fairness if there was one complaint about Dublin bikes to date it was that people wished it stretched out further across the city.

Sponsorship is helping fund the expansion to 100 stations and 1,500 bikes. http://t.co/iNkArYjbRG pic.twitter.com/kkqK5H9ung

— Dublin City Council (@DubCityCouncil) June 18, 2014

A Good Fit?

What are people going to think about a fizzy drinks brand having their logo all over a mode of transport that was meant to make us all more healthy? There are huge calls for a tax on fizzy drinks at the moment as the country battles obesity, so how come millions are being accepted from the biggest fizzy drinks company in the world?

Later this month Dublin Bikes will be rebranded as “Coke Zero dublinbikes” http://t.co/Q0MmMSqt54 http://t.co/sVXPdEskz6

— Dublin Bikes 2 Go! (@dublinbikes2go) June 18, 2014

So we’ll leave it to you to decide. Is this a great way of getting more bikes on our road and making Dublin a better city, or another example of a big brand hijacking something wonderful about our city and selling their wares?