An IKE Smart City kiosk by a bike path in the Houston Heights displays Chevy's Houston-targeted truck ad.

Michael Moritz is not a fan of a new ad campaign targeting Houston commuters.

The 27-year-old renewable energy project developer was walking to lunch downtown last Thursday when he noticed an ad playing on an IKE Smart City kiosk for the 2022 Chevy Silverado Heavy Duty. The image showed the 6,000-pound truck parked in front of a mountain range along with the words "Houston's Massive Transit System."

Displayed feet from the Houston METRO light rail line, Moritz was annoyed enough to take a photo of the kiosk and post it to Twitter: "Thanks I hate it," he wrote.

Thanks I hate it. pic.twitter.com/PKfU87q424

Moritz's tweet quickly went viral, garnering hundreds of retweets and replies from locals and public transit advocates criticizing the strange juxtaposition. A car-less Houstonian who bikes or takes METRO transit most places, Moritz said the ad felt tone deaf and counterproductive.

“I thought it was absolutely heinous," Moritz said. “There’s obviously a climate change that’s upon us, the climate crisis that’s moving, and with vehicles getting heavier it's only requiring more consumption of carbon fuels.”

While new to Houston, Chevy's "Massive Transit" ad is likely a retread of an older Chevy campaign that was pulled from at least one other market. A number of Twitter users noted having seen the same ad running at rail stations in Atlanta, Georgia in 2021 under the tagline "Atlanta's Massive Transit System." A MARTA representative who was shown the Houston ad confirmed that a similar one had been on display at stations in their network but was removed and replaced with a different Chevy ad at the department's request.

An IKE Smart City kiosk by a bike path in the Houston Heights displays Chevy's Houston-targeted truck ad. 

The ad is still on rotating display at IKE Smart City kiosks in the Houston metro as of this writing. The eight-foot-tall digital boards featuring free WiFi and public transit route schedules are managed by Orange Barrel Media, an Ohio-based company specializing in "landmark media and smart city technology." In 2021 the city of Houston awarded Orange Barrel a contract for the installation of 75 kiosks in communities across the city by 2023. The city could stand to make as much as $50 million in advertising revenue from the kiosks by the end of the contract's 12-year term, according to a 2021 report released by the Houston City Council Economic Development Committee.

Orange Barrel Media representatives declined to answer questions about the company's vetting and acquisition of advertising contracts. A request for comment from Chevy's press office went unanswered.

For Moritz, the ad's continued presence is a reminder of the mounting odds he and other car-less commuters have to face every day in American cities.

"The system we designed is exceptionally dangerous," Moritz said. "Cars are getting bigger, taller and heavier. Seeing that ad and then seeing the word 'massive' associated with the vehicle—that's a threat to my existence." 

As for the kiosks, Moritz said the units seem to exist largely for tourists and as ad space eating up sidewalks in a town renowned for its low walkability. He remains optimistic about some of the city's recent bike lane expansions, but believes the only way Houston will wean itself from its "massive transit" addiction is a conscious decision by leaders to break from the past and commit to funding large projects that aren't highway expansions.

"The way that we build our city is only because of the choices of previous generations," Moritz said. "The way to change that is to spend money on other things."

Dan Carson is senior editor at Chron. He has previously worked at FOX Sports and Bleacher Report. He enjoys Formula 1, Indiana basketball and avoiding Galleria traffic.