Tuesday, August 13, 2013

motorcycles sell











Back in the sixties there was a commercial playing David Roses’s “The Stripper,” while a man shaved.  “Take it off, take it all off...” a beautiful Scandinavian looking blond cooed, quick, if you remember the commercial, what was the product?  Tick...tick...tick?  My wife used to joke it was take it off with Aqua Velva, but it was really for Noxzema Medicated Comfort Shave-shaving cream!  And it was such a hit, it was alter redone with Joe Namath and Farrah Fawcett.  Perhaps the best, or at least the most brazen use of sex in a TV commercial to date-that was the 60’s!  But sex has always sold, and continues to sell today.  Take even the most mundane product, add a scantilly clad female, you have a hit.  Turning every nerdy teen into Joe and shaving just because of Farrah.  Look at what you buy and why, you may be surprised.  And hopefully it sells the product-it did for Noxzema.  From shaving cream to air filters, to everything in between, sex adds to the ad, and sometimes is the ad.  “Get your product noticed, get them in the stores, we will do the rest” the sponsors are told, and we the people go willingly to buy, all based on the sex in the ads.  Don’t deny it, remember the Norton girls?  Ever seen a Pirelli calendar?   Sex has been the staple in a car dealers and repair shops for decades.  From St. Pauli girls to the Bud girls, they push sex, but the product is beer.  All they want to do is make you feel good about your decision... no matter how foolish the premise it was based on.  Sex was cool, it still sells, but today a new competitor has arisen.  Motorcycles.
Thanks to Hondas ads in the 60’s, Harley’s incredible marketing campaigns, and motorcycles being cool anyway, they have found their way into numerous ads.  Lucky Jeans with their nostalgic Triumph shirts, soft drinks, snacks, and other products are now finding that putting a motorcycle in their ad draws attention-and not just to motorcycle related products.  One year at Coke we offered ATC’s to raffle off Coke products, a huge increase in sales.  No data available for women.  Like the Noxzema commercial girl, we see bikes being ridden in commercials, making a statement about the product.  Having fun, enjoying life, adding some excitement to a boring existence.  Bringing out a little of the bad boy, wanting you to be part of the excitement, without being part of the scene.  And in this golden age of motorcycling, where more people are riding than ever before, cool is spreading its wings, and including all social, financial, and ethnic groups.  Who doesn’t want to be cool, and riding a motorcycle is cool.  And if you don’t, you can still wear the t-shirt, or use the product.  It is all about the image...what image are you portraying?  If you took it all off, what would we see?  What ‘s underneath your leathers?
Now that we all must face the fact we are all suckers for two wheels, a pretty face, and a sexy ad, what will we do?  What do we buy any more that is based on substance, how the product performs?  For generations families have used the same detergents as their mothers did, buy the same brand of cars as Dad, and stick with traditional brands.  But as new marketing sells us new products, are we buying the new product, or its image?  Tough question to answer honestly...
It is all about the image...the take off.
I have a pet peeve, actually many of them, but one in particular.  I detest people using the Christian fish sign I their ads.  And I find it even more foolish for people who only shop or use Christian businesses.  Just because you portray your shop as a Christian shop, does that mean Jesus works there?  Should I just trust you because you advertise it?  Yet many do, and miss out on one of scriptures most important concepts-getting out the gospel.  Many times throughout Bible history, God has caused situations to spread the gospel in hard times.  From being fruitful and multiplying to the Tower of Babel forward to going out into the world and making disciples, we are to get out among the heathens, the Gentiles, and share the love of Christ.  His message leading unto salvation.  Your chance to get out and into the world, and not be part of it.  When I worked for Coke, I got more Pepsi accounts when we would start eating at Pepsi served restaurants.  Soon our presence was felt and they would change.  We had evangelized them just by being there, and won a convert.  We never drank their Pepsi, and they respected us for it.  How many chances do we get to share Jesus by not getting out of Christian circles?  Do we go where the sick and needy are-Jesus did.  He taught in the church, but ministered in the streets.  And even tough old Peter got it, when he was shown in a dream that nothing is unclean, but that in Christ it can be made clean.  Paul ministered to the Gentiles.  So many ride today, or want to, based on the marketing using motorcycles. Sometimes I feel like I have been prostituted, our special brotherhood being abused by others, but like the gospel, the more that hear about it, will try it.  But it is our job to take it out among the heathens.
While some witness to each other, preach to the choir, others are out spreading the gospel, and getting good deals.  The best motorcycle mechanic I know isn’t a Christian, but knows I am.  The only church he’ll ever attend.  Like my sign says, “love in such a way that if someone doesn’t know God, but knows you, they can get to know God because they know you.”  Someone told you about Jesus when you weren’t saved, enough said.  The best deals are out there, let Jesus show you.  And what better product than salvation can you offer?
Someone once asked me to go for a ride and it changed my life.  Another man told me about Jesus and it changed my life.  Who knows, there may be a lot of those out there like you and me, just waiting to be asked for a ride, or a ride to church.  And you will never know if you don’t get out and find out.  Sex sells, and today motorcycles sell.  Jesus saves.  You mean you don’t ride, let me tell you about my trip last summer.  And you don’t know Jesus, let me tell you how He changed my life.  While you fix my car, cut my hair, or take my groceries out.  Someone is always listening, always watching.  A whole audience to reach you didn’t know existed.  Now you do.  Remember that next time you need help-you may be the answer to their problem, by using yours.  Only Jesus could do that.  Can you?
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com