Why Did Honda Use the Slogan You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda?

David Senra, reading Sol Sanders, says Honda used the slogan "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" because the company first had to change the image of the motorbike. It advertised in Time and Life. Motorcycles then meant a rider was rough, dangerous, and perhaps even a criminal. The company fought the picture of the motorcycle as a plaything for juvenile delinquents and as the mark of a black leather gang. Lack of familiarity was not the main barrier. The problem was social acceptance of motorcycles as serious transportation, and the largest market was American, so the fight started there.

Honda's ads did not set out to sell their own products. They sold motorcycling. Illustrations put students, housewives, businessmen, and other ordinary, presentable people from respectable walks of life on a Honda. Honda became the largest advertiser of motorcycles on U.S. network TV and spread the slogan far and wide. The target was a potential owner-driver and his family, because parental acceptance decided whether a loved one could ride.

A parent brought her son to a Honda dealer. Her son was insisting on buying a motorcycle. She told him she would not have him riding one of them, but she would buy him a Honda.