The bigger issue though might be the marketing around the Scrambler, which seems to focus around this idealized remembrance of the 1960′s. Decisively hipster in its communication, it is interesting to see Ducati reach out to a sub-culture that has cherry-picked into its ethos the most iconic elements of the past few generations, adding relatively few of their own along the way.
As we have seen with the iconography, and indeed with the claymation series, Ducati is trying to build both a bridge back towards an awkward time when the company made small-displacement scramble-style motorcycles, as well as a bridge to the future, where a courtship directed towards the Honda CB-obsessed motorcycle demographic resides.
The bridge backwards is of course about authenticity and acceptance, a message that the Ducati Scrambler is already part of the Italian company’s history, and thus automatically authentic to the brand. However, I challenge one to ask the next Ducati owner you see outside a Starbucks whether or not they identify themselves with PBR-drinking contingency.
