OPINION
Peter Fonda — “Easy Rider”
The very first time I ever rode a motorcycle was when some kid brought one into the neighborhood that everyone said was stolen. It was a Harley-Davidson; I think they called them hummers; they were small little bikes. I rode it for the first time and my whole life changed.
I’ve been in love with motorcycles since I was in the first part of my teens. I have a running gag there are only two kinds of motorcyclists in the world. People admit they own a Honda, and people that lie about it. Then came me and Harley-Davidson.
Ask yourself, can you name another corporate logo that people get tattooed on their body. You ever seen anyone with Kleenex or Chevrolet tattooed on their body? I know dozens of people that have the bar and shield of Harley-Davidson tattooed on their body. That’s product loyalty. Harley-Davidson is iconic, it’s a way of life. It’s part of the strength of our country.
Last year was the 83rd Sturgis, and along with a number of my outlaw friends, we were there. And, of course, that was the great boycott of Bud Light. Bud Light as you probably know went woke. It was a Bud Light promotion conducted with an actress and Tik Tok personality, a transgender woman. Allegedly the desire was to address Bud Light’s decline and attract younger audiences. Well, shazam, not only did they not attract, they lost. I remember being on the street in Sturgis in the summer of 2023 and the Bud Light long booth bar was empty. I’ve read reports that the product is now down 10% and hasn’t been able to make a comeback. That happened in Sturgis. Knowing that no one learns anything from anything, now Harley-Davidson has gone woke.
The company’s CEO Jochen Zeitz, from Germany and former head of Puma, who took over as CEO in May of 2020, spoke about the great product of Harley-Davidson. At a speech at Zermatt Summit in Switzerland and referring to himself he said, “So I became the Taliban in a substantial way. I decided to share and create a sustainability committee I’m chairing today to change long time Harley-Davidson policies.”
Now for the uninformed, the Taliban is a condemned terrorist group that runs Afghanistan. It killed 3,000 Americans in 9/11 and injured 6,000 more, and another 2,500 U.S. service members were killed going after the Taliban in Afghanistan. In the words of my father, what the hell are you thinking?
The Taliban. How do you compare Harley-Davidson to an international terrorist organization, and believing that your principal demographic is male, veteran, pro Trump Republicans are going to jump with glee, oh boy.
The motorcycle is a huge part of my life and lifestyle, the heart and soul of the machine I love so much, that’s been so much a part of my life. Does it now rest in the caves of Tora Bora?
What did they not understand about going woke and watching Bud Light?
The CEO supports hard line policies on trans care for kids, critical race theory, diversity equity, and inclusion efforts on all levels of the company. Employees are fearful they’re going to lose their jobs after production has been moved to Thailand. There’s a revolt inside of the more than 200 Harley-Davidson dealers to oust the current CEO.
When news breaks out, we break in…. it’s just been announced that Harley-Davidson sees the light. Attempting to avoid a boycott which has its traditions in the Irish land wars where the British hired a rent collector named Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott. The Irish would “boycott” him and not pay their rents. That’s where the term comes from.
Boycotting worked for Cesar Chavez and the grapes, Anheuser Busch was not smart enough to figure out what a boycott was about, but Harley-Davidson to its credit understood the power of its own consumers and quickly withdrew its wokeness. In my reading similar things have happened to John Deere and Tractor Supply. They both went woke then pulled back. Does anyone want to guess when public education and the media will follow suit?
You can see how boycott is working. Fewer people watch mainstream news. More people are putting their kids in private schools or home schools. This is boycotting; Harley-Davidson woke up and smelled the coffee and got the hell out of politically correct Dodge.
There’s a whole lot of Harley-Davidson riders breathing a sigh of relief and patting themselves on the back with pride. The boycott that never got off the ground worked.
Live to ride, ride to live.
— Peter Boyles