Motorcycles In the Mainstream

MOTORCYCLES IN THE MAINSTREAM

A DVERTISEMENTS FEATURing motorcycles are nothing new to those who read bike publications or watch bike races on TV. But ads that use two-wheelers to promote non-motorcycle-related products are becoming increasingly common. Witness the "Nice pants" commercial from Levi Strauss & Co., in which a biker accepts a pair of Dockers slacks from the hapless soul who snapped off his Indian's mirror. Or the Saturn Homecoming spot that turns around the familiar Harley-Davidson owner's declaration that, "If you don't own one, you probably wouldn't understand." Or Little Caesar's "affordable spokesperson" Evel Knievel.

This practice isn't limited to television, however. Non-mo torcycling enterprises such as the Formica Corp., Sunds Defi brator and The Antenna Com pany have all run magazine ads featuring motorcycles.

What is the appeal to the non-motorcycling public? Ac cording to spokespersons for these companies, you can thank motorcycling's trendi ness and high-performance image for the increasing, albeit often unexpected, appearance of bikes in ads.

Sunds Defibrator, a company in the pulp and paper industry, created an ad depicting an employee wrenching on his Ducati 750SS vintage racer below the slogan, “Peak performance is the result of preparation.”

Explains the company’s Executive Secretary Deanna Tuten, “We wanted to express peak performance, and we thought vintage motorcycle racing was a good example of a situation in which your equipment must be at peak performance to win.”

Associating high performance with motorcycles is not uncommon. The Antenna Company, a supplier of wireless communications accessories, made a similar connection with its ad comparing a tricycle with a sportbike.

According to spokesperson Darius Bossinas, the company considered a range of comparisons, including a Great Dane and a Chihuahua, before deciding on the motorcycle/tricycle pairing. He says, “We liked the way the bike conveyed high performance, and it was not as esoteric as, say, a jet engine.”

The familiarity aspect also appealed to the Formica Corp., whose brochure depicts a man wrenching on his Triumph engine on the kitchen counter while his horrified wife looks on.

Says Formica Communications Manager Bill Roush,

“We wanted to get durability across, and we figured that everybody has something that requires work that they wouldn’t even consider doing in the kitchen-at least not if their wife were there!”

So, when your friends suddenly start wearing Dockers, driving Satums and eating Little Caesar’s pizza, you’ll know why.

Wendy F. Black