Geezer with a Grudge: The Only Word that Expresses This Is "Pitiful"

Mar 1, 2014

The Only Word that Expresses This Is "Pitiful"

I snagged these three pictures from Motorcyclists' "New for 2014" Up to Speed article. What we're looking at is HD's attempt to market the new HD Street 500/750 models. Either with pirate dorks or nerdy college dorks, HD seems to think the lamest characters in society are its target market. There is literally nothing about the kid in this picture that doesn't scream "Dork Alert!!" When I showed the article to my wife and asked, "What does this ad say to you?"

"Antique. Geek. When he turns around, I expect to see some silly patch, badly sewn on, that tells me what glee club he belongs to. [And you thought I was harsh.] He looks like some of the momma's boys from your old school. What's he doing with that knee?"

That helmet is right out of 1962, although it wasn't stylish then either. It's a Harley, right? Just owning one makes you cool, no matter how dorky you really are. Good luck with that, boys.

2 comments:

Trobairitz said...: Ha ha. This made me chuckle. I too saw the pictures and shook my head. It sure doesn't speak to the typical Harley rider.

I understand they are aiming at newer riders with the smaller displacement bikes, but I think they really missed their mark with this.; 3/2/14, 9:40 AM
Chris said...: Gotta love the graphic design of the ad as well. It looks like it was made in MS Paint by someone with a poor grasp of the program.; 3/5/14, 1:40 PM

The Geezer Story

I stumbled upon this column name (Geezer with a Grudge) almost 20 years ago, in 1999. The first Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly editor I worked with, in late 1999, complained that the magazine was getting no mail and the editors wanted to know if any readers were still out there. I fired off a sarcastic note, as a joke, intended to provide a little humor and some feedback. He published it as an article and later called me to say he'd received more mail on that letter than he'd received in the past year! I followed that with an offer to write a monthly column attempting to piss off a particular section of the magazine's readership to see if that tactic would generate some mail.

It did, probably more regularly than the magazine wanted at times, and I wrote a monthly column for MMM until the magazine died in 2018.

I plan to post an occasional old Geezer article into the blog, followed by short comments about the current status of my perspective on our activity/sport/vehicle of choice.