"You meet the nicest people": An old geezer's memory...
by: oldchopperguy - Dec 3, 2016 9:26:16 GMT -5
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Post by oldchopperguy on Dec 3, 2016 9:26:16 GMT -5
It's Christmas time. And, it's fun to tell younger folks fun stories from the distant past. This may get long, but I think those who missed growing up in the 1960's will enjoy it.
Today, all sorts of riders enjoy all sorts of bikes... scooters, cruisers, crotch-rockets, etc. and think little about being "accepted" by others. That was not so in decades gone by, and we have Honda to thank for the "enlightening" of the masses... Yup!
Yes, I well remember when there were NO Japanese bikes. REALLY!
Somewhere around the early 1960's the Asian invasion began, with HONDA firmly in charge. That little step-through 50 was as the Arabs say "the camel's nose under the tent" and soon the whole camel would be welcomed into the living room.
Early on, Honda wisely chose a good ad agency to build their image. They KNEW their products would never get existing American riders off their Harleys and Brit bikes. They needed to create a totally NEW market from scratch. To accomplish this, their marketing pros came up with the iconic slogan: You meet the NICEST PEOPLE on a HONDA."
Imagine that! America back then firmly believed you'd meet the WORST people on a MOTORCYCLE. Not usually true, but due to movie images, firmly accepted by "proper Americans". After all, haven't you SEEN Marlon Brando in "The Wild One"
Well, in a very short time, the little 50cc wheezer morphed into a
, then came the 160, 250 and 305 and the amazing 450cc twins. Finally around 1969, came the revolutionary 750 4-banger. Kids LOVED 'em. Police didn't even mind 'em too much and PARENTS grudgingly accepted them. Honda dealers continually heard dad say: "I won't let MY kid have a MOTORCYCLE, but he CAN have a HONDA".
Like "KODAK" becoming a generic name for all cameras, and "COKE" sufficing for all cola drinks, "HONDA" suddenly became generic for all Japanese bikes. If it was clean, had electric start, turn-signals, quiet muffs, didn't leak oil and didn't look like a Hog or a Triumph, it was a HONDA. Even if it was made by Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, etc. It WAS still a HONDA. And after all, you meet the nicest people on a HONDA.
This was a serious phenomenon! Around 1967, I had begun wearing a helmet after seeing the demise of some riding pals. I proudly pulled "Old Blue" into the driveway of a girl's family to take her for a ride. Her Dad was NOT impressed... The initial conversation went something like this...
"Nice to meet you sir." Ugh... Hmmm... WHAT is the THING on your head, boy? A crash-helmet? Yeah, I saw and heard that contraption when you pulled up. A decent person would NEED a helmet just to be safe LOOKING at it... Ugh..
Helmets... leather... boots... You MOTORCYCLE boys look like Nazi storm-troopers. If you want to take MY daughter for a ride, you get rid of that MOTORCYCLE and get a HONDA.
The boys who drive HONDAS look like proper college students... they don't wear that Halloween costume garb. They wear crew-cuts. And Madras shorts. And clean, white polo-shirts and sneakers. No, my daughter is NOT getting on ANYTHING that you need to wear a HELMET to use.
..."But SIR, a Honda IS a motorcycle!" Naah... Whatsa matter with you, boy? You must be brain-rattled from the noise of that thing.
"Not really sir. I'm a "proper college grad" myself.
Then you should know decent boys ride HONDAS; not MOTORCYCLES.
Cheesh... did those Honda marketing boys do a job or what?
I well remember early Honda print ads. They featured collegiate-looking guys in wash-pants or shorts, Madras plaid, or polo-shirts, books on the luggage rack and absolutely NO helmets, boots, gloves or even sun-glasses... All those accessories harkened back to MOTORCYCLE riders... And HONDAS were Hondas. NOT motorcycles.
Sometimes in a Honda ad, there would be a saccharin-sweet, virginal college girl in a blouse and skirt, side-saddle on the passenger seat, in a world of her own, her head leaning dreamily on the clean-cut guy's shoulder, and holding her books in her lap as they buzzed down the boulevard. And always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS in bold type: "YOU MEET THE NICEST PEOPLE ON A HONDA".
Those sugary, clean-cut, innocent naïve ads encouraged the most DANGEROUS riding habits imaginable, but they seemed SO wholesome, and they won the hearts of America... and changed the image of bikes forever.
No longer did you have to look like a Mongolian warlord to ride a "sickle". No longer did you need protective gear... THAT was for macho thugs... You could now forget all about dangerous, leaky, noisy MOTORCYCLES with their nasty image, and aura of instant death and dismemberment... And, instead, ride a HONDA. Honda "drivers" were safe. They never crashed. They were clean and respectable. The ads SAID so, SO it MUST be true... right?
Well, the things we bikers noticed most about those clean-cut Honda boys was that while they didn't have helmets, or goggles, they always had rolling-papers and "birth-control" stuff handy. Maybe daddy was right after all, about innocent Suzy being much safer on a boy's Honda... Duh...
But right or wrong, 1960's Honda marketing paved the way for it to be "OK" for "decent people" to ride a "HONDA"... And over the years, a little bit of it trickled down to bikers of all persuasions.
So, you meet the nicest people on a Honda. Sometimes! And I've met some nice people on a chopper. And a bagger... even a crotch-rocket. And over the last eight years, I've met the nicest people on a SCOOTER.
But, if it weren't for that incredibly patronizing, discriminatory brain-washing ad campaign SO long ago, most of us on two wheels today would still be "second-class citizens" with targets on our backs... And Honda would never have created the non-Harley, non-British bike community in which even we scooter-jockeys participate.
So, ride safe this Holiday season, and don't encourage Suzy to ride side-saddle behind you with her books in her arms... And while you're at it, meet some of the nicest people, on whatever they ride or drive
Leo (turned 70, and feeling a tad OLD these days) in Texas
Today, all sorts of riders enjoy all sorts of bikes... scooters, cruisers, crotch-rockets, etc. and think little about being "accepted" by others. That was not so in decades gone by, and we have Honda to thank for the "enlightening" of the masses... Yup!
Yes, I well remember when there were NO Japanese bikes. REALLY!
Somewhere around the early 1960's the Asian invasion began, with HONDA firmly in charge. That little step-through 50 was as the Arabs say "the camel's nose under the tent" and soon the whole camel would be welcomed into the living room.
Early on, Honda wisely chose a good ad agency to build their image. They KNEW their products would never get existing American riders off their Harleys and Brit bikes. They needed to create a totally NEW market from scratch. To accomplish this, their marketing pros came up with the iconic slogan: You meet the NICEST PEOPLE on a HONDA."
Imagine that! America back then firmly believed you'd meet the WORST people on a MOTORCYCLE. Not usually true, but due to movie images, firmly accepted by "proper Americans". After all, haven't you SEEN Marlon Brando in "The Wild One"
Well, in a very short time, the little 50cc wheezer morphed into a
, then came the 160, 250 and 305 and the amazing 450cc twins. Finally around 1969, came the revolutionary 750 4-banger. Kids LOVED 'em. Police didn't even mind 'em too much and PARENTS grudgingly accepted them. Honda dealers continually heard dad say: "I won't let MY kid have a MOTORCYCLE, but he CAN have a HONDA".Like "KODAK" becoming a generic name for all cameras, and "COKE" sufficing for all cola drinks, "HONDA" suddenly became generic for all Japanese bikes. If it was clean, had electric start, turn-signals, quiet muffs, didn't leak oil and didn't look like a Hog or a Triumph, it was a HONDA. Even if it was made by Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, etc. It WAS still a HONDA. And after all, you meet the nicest people on a HONDA.
This was a serious phenomenon! Around 1967, I had begun wearing a helmet after seeing the demise of some riding pals. I proudly pulled "Old Blue" into the driveway of a girl's family to take her for a ride. Her Dad was NOT impressed... The initial conversation went something like this...
"Nice to meet you sir." Ugh... Hmmm... WHAT is the THING on your head, boy? A crash-helmet? Yeah, I saw and heard that contraption when you pulled up. A decent person would NEED a helmet just to be safe LOOKING at it... Ugh..
Helmets... leather... boots... You MOTORCYCLE boys look like Nazi storm-troopers. If you want to take MY daughter for a ride, you get rid of that MOTORCYCLE and get a HONDA.
The boys who drive HONDAS look like proper college students... they don't wear that Halloween costume garb. They wear crew-cuts. And Madras shorts. And clean, white polo-shirts and sneakers. No, my daughter is NOT getting on ANYTHING that you need to wear a HELMET to use.
..."But SIR, a Honda IS a motorcycle!" Naah... Whatsa matter with you, boy? You must be brain-rattled from the noise of that thing.
"Not really sir. I'm a "proper college grad" myself.
Then you should know decent boys ride HONDAS; not MOTORCYCLES.
Cheesh... did those Honda marketing boys do a job or what?
I well remember early Honda print ads. They featured collegiate-looking guys in wash-pants or shorts, Madras plaid, or polo-shirts, books on the luggage rack and absolutely NO helmets, boots, gloves or even sun-glasses... All those accessories harkened back to MOTORCYCLE riders... And HONDAS were Hondas. NOT motorcycles.
Sometimes in a Honda ad, there would be a saccharin-sweet, virginal college girl in a blouse and skirt, side-saddle on the passenger seat, in a world of her own, her head leaning dreamily on the clean-cut guy's shoulder, and holding her books in her lap as they buzzed down the boulevard. And always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS in bold type: "YOU MEET THE NICEST PEOPLE ON A HONDA".
Those sugary, clean-cut, innocent naïve ads encouraged the most DANGEROUS riding habits imaginable, but they seemed SO wholesome, and they won the hearts of America... and changed the image of bikes forever.
No longer did you have to look like a Mongolian warlord to ride a "sickle". No longer did you need protective gear... THAT was for macho thugs... You could now forget all about dangerous, leaky, noisy MOTORCYCLES with their nasty image, and aura of instant death and dismemberment... And, instead, ride a HONDA. Honda "drivers" were safe. They never crashed. They were clean and respectable. The ads SAID so, SO it MUST be true... right?
Well, the things we bikers noticed most about those clean-cut Honda boys was that while they didn't have helmets, or goggles, they always had rolling-papers and "birth-control" stuff handy. Maybe daddy was right after all, about innocent Suzy being much safer on a boy's Honda... Duh...
But right or wrong, 1960's Honda marketing paved the way for it to be "OK" for "decent people" to ride a "HONDA"... And over the years, a little bit of it trickled down to bikers of all persuasions.
So, you meet the nicest people on a Honda. Sometimes! And I've met some nice people on a chopper. And a bagger... even a crotch-rocket. And over the last eight years, I've met the nicest people on a SCOOTER.
But, if it weren't for that incredibly patronizing, discriminatory brain-washing ad campaign SO long ago, most of us on two wheels today would still be "second-class citizens" with targets on our backs... And Honda would never have created the non-Harley, non-British bike community in which even we scooter-jockeys participate.
So, ride safe this Holiday season, and don't encourage Suzy to ride side-saddle behind you with her books in her arms... And while you're at it, meet some of the nicest people, on whatever they ride or drive
Leo (turned 70, and feeling a tad OLD these days) in Texas
OK, for drivers BEHIND me, not so much....... 