Motorcycle Adverts on TV - have you ever seen one?

[Alun]

I was taking the long way home again tonight. The sky was blue, the fields were green and the sunlight was that warm late evening glow which emphasised the beauty of the Cotswolds. I was thinking it would make for the perfect scene for a TV motorcycle advert. And then got thinking - I've never seen a TV advert for motorcycles. Have I missed them?

[Wee Jack]

Suzuki have one running on Eurosport now and then , a bit bland "Euroadd" aimed at the urban market .

[Alun]

I don't think I've ever watched Eurosport.

Strange that bike adverts don't feature on the main TV channels when you consider all the other products and services that do.

Perhaps we are more of a minority than we like to think.

[Highwaylass]

There's the Honda "impossible dream" ad, which is more of a stealth motorcycle ad...

[Alun]

Hi Highwaylass, good point about Honda, very stealthy indeed, to the point that I'd forgotten about it.

Along the same lines I suppose the 'Long Way's' have been about the best (not so stealthy)TV ads in the past 20 years, And the best ever was Steve Mcqueen for Triumph – which appears every Xmas wrapped in barb wire. Speaking of which 'Barb Wire' was another for Triumph.

[Highwaylass]

Not forgetting the incredibly cheesy Ewan MacGregor ad for Davidoff.

Actually the ad I really thought would make people go "cool - I want to do that" was the one for ...bugger, I've forgotten. Virgin? "Crazy Horses" on the soundtrack and a guy on a trail bike racing the clouds and jumping into a rainbow while blonde milkmaid looks on in awe.

The slogan was "some say why. Some say, why not?"

[Alun]

As part of my quest for a hangover cure – very boozy wedding party last night – I've just done a Google search for 'virgin atlantic advert motorcycle crazy horses' and come up with this...

The ad: A strange hybrid of The Great Escape and The Sound of Music, this uplifting promo opens with a chiselled young man on a shiny motorbike surveying a spectacular panoramic vista. Suddenly he notices a rainbow in the distance. Jamming on his helmet, he then speeds off across the lush green countryside in pursuit of it. The fool! Luckily, he's accompanied on his journey by the Osmonds' rousing chestnut Crazy Horses. After passing an innocent Heidi lookalike watching him admiringly over a gate, he finally leaps off a cliff into the rainbow as the words 'some say why?' appear on screen. The caption then changes to 'some say why not?' Well, quite.

The jargon: If you don't get this ad, you're not meant to. It's 'self-selecting', according to ad agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe, who feel the commercial embodies the time-honoured screw-it-let's-do-it spirit of the Virgin brand.

Personality: Given that this is basically an exercise in chest-thumping corporate branding, its target audience is broad in the extreme. You could be anyone of any age - you just have to be a potential Virgin traveller in either leisure or business class. 'It's for anyone who has a dream, who wants to get on a plane and experience life,' gush Rainey Kelly.

Financial status: Rather than fitting into a neat demographic or having an astronomical salary, you simply have enough money for a good-value plane ticket. (Generally speaking, this excludes the poor.)

Telling lifestyle detail: You value the alternative. You're liberated, adventurous and open-minded in all your lifestyle choices.

Other relevant data: The ad is by Vaughan Arnell, the music video director behind Millennium by Robbie Williams and George Michael's Outside.

So now you know. And, surprisingly, Googling at 8am on a Sunday morning doesn't help much with a hangover.