The last few years the big factories have been aiming bikes directly at lazy hipsters. The ones who can’t be bothered to find some shit heap, make it worse and produce a pretentious video about how much it means to make terrible things. They want 2nd tier hipsters and can you blame them? These well heeled trustafarians are particularly easy to part from their (parents) money. Even the Germans were trading in their lab coats for high end denim this year with the release of the R Nine T, so it’s no surprise that Ducati wants in on the act.
As it was in WWII, so it is now, the Italians simply aren’t in the same league as the Germans. BMW were smart enough to pay established bullshit artists like El Solitario to produce their videos for extra credibility. The Italians took a swing at producing their own video. The result? Well the result is a mix between a Mentos ad and a hipster bike video. They have all the elements, grating music, fake drag races, pushing over a guy taking a piss but they miss the mark somehow. There is no self importance, no talk of connection between man and machine not even a single meaningful look into the camera.
Honorable mention goes to this Husqvarna video, in which they use things like urban camping and models to try and trick hipsters into buying a modern motorcycle. They’re trying to convince these civil war beard enthusiasts that maybe a shit box Honda from the 70s isn’t the be all and end all of motorcycling. We wish them luck.
