Corporate Lost
Jason Weigandt

Blogandt

Corporate Lost

When Ken Roczen won the 2014 450 Class Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, he celebrated by doing a burnout in the parking lot at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, melting a tire while Chad Reed poured a beer in his mouth. He was surrounded by people on their phones, shooting videos and uploading it to social media. Do you know how much trouble Ken got in for this unprofessional act?

None.

Two years later, Roczen won the title again, and showed up at the press conference shirtless while drinking a Coors Light. Just prior, Cooper Webb had clinched the 250 title and dropped about a dozen S-bombs during his portion of the presser. Pretty sure Coops had already downed some silver bullets, also. You know how much trouble these guys got into?

None.

Then Roczen switched to Honda and everyone feared that his outspoken ways would smash into Honda's buttoned-down corporate rep. Ken kept being Ken, but Honda, well, kept letting Ken be Ken. Somewhere along the way, brands/teams/sponsors realized that "professional above all else" has to cede to "genuine above all else." It doesn't matter what the rider does, as long as it's from the heart. 

It's all good.
It's all good.

Jason Anderson and Aaron Plessinger represent this ascension in Monster Energy Supercross. These are two of the loosest, most laid-back guys in the pits. If you grabbed four people off the street, dragged them to a supercross, and showed them around the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna and Monster Energy/Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha pits, they would have a tough time figuring out if Anderson and Plessinger were even racers. You'd think they were man-friends, buddies, or just random hang-out dudes. They act just like anyone else; they just have to put on gear and get on the motorcycle a few times during the day.

Anderson just makes jokes all the time. Plessinger takes it one step further, because all he does is laugh. It's tempting to write some stories today about these guys being underdogs that proved the doubters wrong—surely Anderson was behind Eli Tomac/Marvin Musquin/Roczen on the pre-season hype chart, surely Plessinger was, at best, merely in the mix with names like Adam Cianciarulo, Joey Savatgy, and last year's champ, Justin Hill (Shane McElrath was a factor, too, but no one talks about him). But "showing everyone what's up" isn't what pushes these guys. That's too serious. I mean, I'm not sure if Plessinger: 

A) Realized he could win this title

B) Realizes he did win this title

C) Cares

Dude's just being himself. I asked him over and over if he got nervous at any point during the day in Vegas. He said he didn't, and I actually believe him because, dude, have you seen this guy? Does he seem like he's ever stressing much? Aaron also coordinated proposing to his girlfriend into this championship podium, but he says he was actually planning to do this since January, but each time he won a race his buddies screwed up and didn't have the ring handy. Whatever! He'll just have to go win again. Or get the title. His girlfriend, by the way, is expecting. So Aaron was going to pop the question while getting prepared to become a father AND trying to lock down this title. That's meltdown stress for most. I bet AP just laughed through it all.

I think the only time AA-Ron does get scared is when he has to rattle off those sponsor names on the podium. Now that's serious business, and AA-Ron doesn't do serious. I think he'd rather deal with 15 minutes of pressure while leading the race. 

Look, some of these guys have to read off the sponsor names. Part of the contract. It ends up giving off this fake corporate vibe, where it looks like the teams and sponsors are scripting and coordinating everything these guys do. Unfortunately, they only control what the riders say for about 20 seconds of each week, but it just happens to be the first 20 seconds that they appear on TV after the race. Otherwise, it has become a mission of these teams to let the riders be themselves. AP strode up to the press conference in that crazy helmet wearing camo shorts and flip-flops. It bothered no one. For Yamaha or Monster Energy, Aaron is representing customers in the best possible way. He's a cool young dude who races a dirt bike, wins, and celebrates with his buddies. This is the look and demo most brands would kill for.

Speaking of looks, did you see the split screen they showed on last week's SX broadcast, showing Ryan Dungey's 2017 stats against Anderson's 2018 season? On paper, they were remarkably similar, but in reality, they look so different. Dungey is 100 percent clean-cut Midwestern perfection. Anderson is from the desert and appears neither clean nor cut. Dungey measures every word for fear of insulting or offending. Anderson says whatever he wants, and if he offends or insults, well, that's just more to laugh about.

The best part is that he doesn't get in trouble for this. In fact, it's encouraged because it's genuine. 

While in Las Vegas, I had lunch on Friday with some high-ranking KTM officials and we got to talking about post-race press conferences. They were not concerned with logo placement or sponsor plugs. Their goal is to figure out how to get the guys to loosen up even more, to show even more personality, and to make a genuine connection with fans. 

A genuine connection. It's what "corporate" really wants, and they've all realized being corporate is the first part that has to go.