Ups & Downs

Ups & Downs

ROUNDUP

DOWN: To EA Sports, for its environmentally insensitive ad promoting its new “Freekstyle” video game. The ad depicts a hairless rabbit covering his eyes as shirtless, tattooed freestyle motocrossers perform aerial tricks above a burning meadow. Reads the copy, “Once upon a time, there was a happy little place, with happy little creatures. Until, one day a bunch of freekstylers found it and it wasn’t so happy anymore. The End.” With ads like this, the end might be closer than we think...

UP: To Double magazine, for giving tandem bicycle riders a “Double Alternative”—motorcycling! Let’s consider the motorcycle,” wrote editor Henry Abel in the Spring, 2002, issue. “It’s essentially a tandem with an engine, and it enables you to get in that “double century” before lunch.” The two-page primer included photos and information on BMW’s F650CS and R1150RT, and Harley-Davidson’s V-Rod, plus contact information for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.

UP: To Yamaha Racing Communications, for its fact-filled press releases. A recent “MotoGP Setup Report” detailed the chassis changes Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa planned to make to their YZR-M1s to cope with the intense braking at the series round in Le Mans, France. As CW Technical Editor Kevin Cameron pointed out, “With so many teams just putting up silly puff pieces like, ‘Roger Bloggs eager to score maximum points at the weekend,’ Yamaha’s press releases are distinctive. And they even make sense.”