One man’s marketing is another wife’s nightmare

One of Tom’s favorite magazines is Sport Rider because it appeals to the speed-demon, leather-wearing, risk-taking rebel in him.  The fact that the magazine is often left in the bathroom cracks me up because I can’t help but imagine this staid and stable 54-year-old engineer sitting on the porcelain throne pretending it’s the seat of one of these:

Tonight the magazine was open to an article about Shoei X-Twelve helmet.  Ooooh-la-la – what a helmet it is!

But the WIFE and MOTHER in me was drawn directly to this:

Seriously?  “The X-Twelve is equipped with Shoei’s EQRS (Emergency Quick Release System) for the cheekpads that allow quick and easy removal to allow medical personnel to more easily remove the helmet from the rider’s head”!

This is a product feature!  The marketer in my totally gets it… but the wife in me can’t help but conjure up horrible, gruesome, petrifying images that I can’t imagine any marketer wants conjured up. 

Of course I immediately brought this to Tom’s attention, asking him (yes, rhetorically) what it is about men that they have a desire to pursue an activity dangerous enough to demand the creation of such a gizmo.  Without missing a beat he asked me what it is about people that they have such a desire to pursue an activity dangerous enough to require the creation of “the jaws of life.”

Touché.  And point well taken.  But still – is this really good marketing?  Or am I just a bit too much of a fuddy-duddy wife?