Hollywood also helped the bad-boy image of motorcyclists with movies such as The Wild One, Captain America and Easy Rider.

Undoubtedly, part of the brand's popularity is its dark, almost underworld edginess.

But when an event such as the recent slaying of eight Bandido motorcycle gang members thrusts the Harley name on to the front pages, how should the company ensure its brand remains detached from the gruesome news?

"If I were a brand manager at Harley-Davidson, I would say no comment," says Andrea Wojnicki, marketing professor at University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. "I wouldn't want to bring up the association."

Ric Marrero, marketing and communications director for Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada, says the company, "does not endorse or condone what they (gang members) do as individuals," and believes the public already understands that.

Brendan Calder, University of Toronto professor and owner of two Harleys, agrees. He was more concerned about why the crime occurred than what motorcycles gang members own.

Harley-Davidson is not the only brand to have been independently adopted — or "hijacked" — by a potentially undesirable group.

Dr. Martens, the heavy-soled shoes designed by Bill Griggs in 1960, were designed with policemen and firefighters in mind, but were adopted by British skinheads.

In 2002, neo-Nazi groups in Germany adopted New Balance running shoes. The luxury brand Burberry was banned from some U.K. pubs and clubs in 2004 after being adopted by British soccer hooligans and bling-loving British youth.

When a company's brand has been hijacked, it should respond by building or reinforcing the brand's positive associations, says Ashwin Joshi, professor of marketing at York University's Schulich School of Business.

New Balance, for example, sponsored events such as Rock Against Racism. Burberry featured Kate Moss in high-end advertising campaigns and stopped production of its striped baseball cap.

"Instead of tackling negative associations," Joshi says, "(a company) should increase its associations with positive reference groups." by Sharda Prashad;

See this Ontario Canada Motorcycle news source here...

April 11 2006; Shedden Ontario Canada; 5 held in Canada killings tied to bikers; POLICE SAY 8 DEATHS PART OF BANDIDOS' 'INTERNAL CLEANSING'By Beth Duff-Brown ASSOCIATED PRESS; LONDON, Ontario - Canadian police arrested five people on murder charges yesterday in one of Canada's worst mass killings and said eight men found inside vehicles on an isolated farm over the weekend were affiliated with a biker gang. Police called the killings "an internal cleansing" of the Bandidos motorcycle gang.

Detective Ross Bingley of the Ontario Provincial Police said investigators didn't think a biker gang war was imminent. "This is an isolated incident with ties to the Bandidos," he said.

Police said they arrested five people at a modest, two-story farmhouse 6 miles from the site where the bodies were found in four vehicles Saturday morning on a farm in Shedden, Ontario, 90 miles northeast of Detroit. The victims died of gunshot wounds, police said. Autopsies were under way yesterday. Read the rest of this Ontrio biker news article here...
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april 11 2006; Toronto Ont; A bloody 'cleansing' ; Murder charg24 laid against five people in slaying of eight Bandidos bikers ; TIMOTHY APPLEBY ; From Tuesday's Globe and Mail;

The eight men found slaughtered in a Southwestern Ontario farmer's field on Saturday, their bodies stuffed into four vehicles, were all full-fledged members or associates of the Bandidos biker gang and were shot dead in an "internal cleansing," provincial police said yesterday, allaying any immediate prospect of a gang war. Four men and a woman -- one full-patch Bandido and four associates -- were arrested Sunday night after a lengthy police standoff outside the nearby farmhouse of one of the accused. Get the whole Ontario biker crime story here...