A Cleveland alt-weekly said that Uber backed out of a deal it had made with the paper to stock its cars with copies of the publication during the Republican National Convention because of its Donald Trump cover.
The cover of The Cleveland Scene’s June 13 issue featured Donald Trump perched on Tower City in downtown Cleveland, King Kong-style. The cover was one of several images in the alt-weekly’s GOP convention-themed adult coloring book, which was described by editor Vince Grzegorek as “An RNC Coloring Book, Because If They Can Act Like Children, So Can You.” It featured images of Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) sipping tea, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) holding a hoagie and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wearing a shirt with the sign of the Zodiac killer.
Grzegorek tweeted Wednesday that Uber was put off by the image:
So @Uber was going to have this week’s @ClevelandScene in every vehicle in Cle but backed out bc of cover/content pic.twitter.com/fnKo8i21yv
— Vince Grzegorek (@vincethepolack) July 13, 2016
A spokesperson for Uber said in a statement emailed to TPM on Thursday that “our goal is to celebrate Cleveland and help provide mobility during what promises to be a busy time for the city. We’ll leave the politics to the pundits.”
Cleveland Scene Publisher Andrew Zelman told BuzzFeed News that Uber first approached him about the opportunity. But Zelman said that when the company received the July 13 issue that would appear in its cars, he got a call from a marketing person who reminded him that there would be Trump supporters, delegates and other Republicans in Uber cars around Cleveland during the convention.
“They felt that carrying our paper would take away from that bipartisan vibe because of the comics poking fun of some of the Republican establishment,” Zelman told BuzzFeed.
Uber is being reasonable, here. RNC attendees would be pissed, and Uber would take some of the heat.
If the Cleveland paper is like most alt-weeklies, though, there is plenty between the covers that would give the vapors to many RNC delegates.
And Uber people didn’t consider that very obvious point before agreeing to place the alt-weekly in its cars? Dot One connects to Dot Two – it ain’t that danged difficult. If I were the folks at this paper and I’d already secured an agreement, I’d be more than just a little pissed about Uber backing out of that agreement.
ETA: If I’d already promised ads to local businesses being available as reading material to tourists in taxis during one of the busiest weeks of the year … yeah, I’d be pissed.
They expect a “bi-partisan vibe” at the Republican convention?
It’s the July 13 issue, folks. Your second paragraph says it’s the June 13 issue.
Every time I see an interview with the Uber creators, I feel like I need a bath afterwards. Same with AirB&B.