Bike Share Toronto is enticing Torontonians to pick up a bike as they make their way around the city during Pride events.

According to Pride Toronto’s Economic Impact Report, the last pre-pandemic Toronto Pride parade drew about 1.7 million attendees. Every year it includes dozens of road closures.

“Taking a bike [to the event] is the fastest and easiest,” says Tina Vahn, creative director at Publicis Toronto, the agency that lead the work.

“Happy Ride to Pride” is the latest campaign for the bicycle sharing network. Colourful messaging includes cheeky headlines like “getting around is easy when you’re bike curious” and “real queens don’t let traffic drag them down.”

It’s not often that clients come right out and say that they are willing to be risqué and a bit sassy, says Vahn.

“That was exciting for us.I think our expectation is to get people talking.”

To maximize its impact, the “Happy Ride to Pride” campaign will be deployed through a multi-channel approach, leveraging social media platforms and posters at Bike Share stations in and around the city’s hub of 2SLGBTQ+ life, Church and Wellesley. It even includes the distribution of 3,000 bike seat covers.

These limited edition, removable seat covers will also feature cheeky headlines like “bumper to bumper traffic belongs on the dancefloor” and will be seen as well at Bike Share Toronto valet stations around Pride events.

The seat covers are a fun takeaway, Vahn says, and if people pocket them, as expected, the campaign, in a sense, will live on.

Bike Share Toronto offers more than 7,000 bikes city-wide, operated by the City of Toronto’s parking authority. This May, Bike Share Toronto launched a sponsorship deal with Tangerine.

The service had been operating at a loss ever since TD ended its sponsorship in 2017; at the time the new Tangerine partnership was announced, Toronto deputy mayor Jennifer McKelvie said it would “help us continue to grow and improve Bike Share across our city so more and more residents and visitors are able to use the program.”

Facebook and Instagram are being deployed to get the message out, and Vahn is hoping that the seat covers drive pick up on TikTok and other places. The seat covers will have a special hashtag, “#RideTOPride,” to encourage social sharing.