By Marissa Baecker
I know as a parent how difficult it is to buy gifts for my sons – correction – how difficult it is to buy gifts they will like – as all they seem to want lately is cash. Imagine if you were the parent of Justin Bieber? What on earth do you buy a kid that has all the money in the world to buy whatever he wants.
How do you rate on the scale of parental acknowledgement of a significant birthday?
You buy them an MV Augusta motorcycle.
WHAT? When the press release went across my desk so many questions went through my head partnered with a few off the cuff rhetorical comments probably from jealousy or harboured negative feelings of my own dad’s out right denial of my request for a street bike when I was a teen – “Over my dead body” were his exact words. He fixed them after crashes and had seen too much metal that should have resembled a motorcycle to allow his daughter the freedom of a bike at such a young age. “You go figure out driving in a car for a few years, then maybe we’ll talk.”
Does Justin Bieber even drive? Does his dad think he is actually going to go out and about on this bike that now, thanks to the press release, everyone in his fan base will know is his? Does he know what an MV Augusta is? The list of questions this announcement raised goes on.
The story continues that dear ol’Bieber dad decided to buy one for his son to commemorate his 19th birthday and when MV Augusta ‘learned’ who the bike was for “they were really honoured to be a part of this.”
Really? Honoured? Oh please! Let’s say it like it is. This is a marketing gold mine! Let’s face it, MV Augusta saw an opportunity to get international recognition of a bike brand that has recently entered the Canadian market and what better way to do it than with an internationally recognized Canadian celebrity. It doesn’t take rocket science or a big PR firm to figure that out.
Why can’t a press release say that? “We were shocked that Justin Bieber was going to get one of our bikes and saw huge potential for the exposure of the brand with this worldwide singer so we bent over backwards to accommodate him!” That is more real in my opinion.
Don’t get me wrong. Good for Bieber that he got a bike for his birthday and good for MV Augusta for the exposure for the brand. I personally think getting some journalists on their bike would provide a more targeted exposure of the brand but that is just me.
This is from the press release:
The Canadian designer, Lucent AC, was given the task of personalizing this motorcycle in the theme of Justin Bieber’s favourite superhero, Batman. No detail has been overlooked, from the custom matte black paint and blue illuminated Batman and JB signatures to the specially machined parts. All of which were meticulously crafted in respect to MV Agusta’s exceptional standards and passion for creating Motorcycle Art.
Here is the best part:
The motorcycle will be on display for the first 2 weeks of March at “THEMUSEUM” ( www.themuseum.ca ) in Kitchener, Ontario, just outside Justin Bieber’s hometown.
In a museum? Are you kidding? There were no photos of Justin receiving his new birthday present sent along with the release, just the one I posted here of the bike (which, I must say, looks pretty cool.)
I couldn’t tell you how an MV August rides because it is impossible to get one to test unless you are a journalist in the East, or happen to be visiting Toronto – so that makes me geographically undesirable. Bummer.
I, personally, love to see celebrities riding. It makes them one of us. I will definitely be keeping my eyes and ears open for any news of Bieber enjoying his new ride (I somehow think that if he actually gets out on the road, he won’t be that difficult to spot – thank you Dad Bieber). Let’s just hope he gets some proper training first.
