On Monday of this week, Wiggle promoted a new cycling calendar (this one in the pictures here) on Twitter and Facebook. You know the sort; components and bikes with ladies draped over them, not wearing a lot. Now, even at that point you'd think "in this day and age...", but it was worse than that and got worse and Wiggle tied themselves in knots (sadly I have no screen shots, maybe someone else does?).Not only were the ladies draped over things, but they were oiled and shiny, and very scantily clad, and jutting out boobs and bums in provocative poses.
And they were pro cyclists.
The immediate reaction on Facebook was "Er, you're kidding right? This is awfully sexist." and that was the men's comments. The response from Wiggle was "they're pro cyclists, it's fine!". Oh. Dear. After a few more comments and exchanges that can be summed up by "OK Wiggle, what you just said is; 'hey girls, it's not going to be good enough for you to be good enough at your sport, to get successful you'll have to nigh-on get your baps out'" (thanks @thegareth for those words) and that the product and attitude was damaging to the cause of promoting and improving women's cycling.
Wiggle later removed the Facebook post and Tweet.
Now... if that was something that offended you, was against your values and you were a regular shopper at Wiggle (because it's easy, convenient and you save money) what would you do? Would you boycott? Would you tut heavily and move on? Would you put it down to a silly, mis-guided employee and not the view of the company so it doesn't matter?
