10 of the Weirdest MTB Marketing Videos Ever

The mountain bike marketing machine is a beast that pumps out tonnes of content every day. Whether it's a new Danny MacAskill edit that deservedly gets hundreds of thousands of views, or a "leak" to hype a new bike, there are marketing teams making decisions, spending money, and working with athletes to make things happen.

But some videos aren't your standard shreddit, vlog, or product pitch... Sometimes the weirdness works, and sometimes it really, really doesn't. Here are some of the weirdest of all time.

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1. Bobby Root Rides the M1 Sporttechnik eMTB in 'The Freedombiker'


Combining a German eMTB and early freeride wheelie king Bobby Root, the wild-west-themed video for the 'Spitzing Evolution' was the inspiration for this list. We have so many questions... Why does the bike make engine noises? Is the canyon gap ironic? Why is he in a city now? How much money did they spend shooting in Monument Valley?

Don't worry, there's a behind the scenes as well, which answers none of our questions.

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2. Kyle Strait's Meaty Paw Promo



One of our favourite launches this year. Lyle serves up some 'murican meat with... style?

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3. Pinarello's Dogma XM Jargon Fest


Pinarello's marketing strategy here seems to be feeding a corporate-speak handbook into Google text-to-speak, slapping that on an eight minute video of 3D renders, and proudly uploading the result to the internet. Pinarello may be one of the most coveted brands in the road world but this approach won't be cracking the mountain bike side of things anytime soon.

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4. Brandon Semenuk's Beef Jerky Bromance


New Brandon edit, sick! Wait, what? Honestly as weird edits go this one is pretty good—we get a minute of shredding and a sick 270 tree footplant. Then things get weird with what appears to be Brett Tippie doing some DIY restoration of Ecce Homo.

To be fair, beef jerky sponsorship is probably the best flow you could get.

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5. Moto Parilla's Crowdfunding Pitch


This one might be cheating... but our helmetless, farmers' tanned, porno-'stached protagonist does technically ride the Moto Parilla in the mountains.

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6. YT Industy's Christopher Walken Jeffsy Ad


YT's hiring Christopher Walken for a marketing video is the definition of a weird flex. The brand has always tried to give each of their bikes a personality, and this video took that literally. Over half a million views later, it clearly did its job.

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7. Zefal's PSI Peeping Tom


One to be filed under 'videos you definitely wouldn't put out in 2019', Zefal have very astutely noticed that pumping up a tyre looks like wanking, and have decided to make a whole advert about it. With nightmare-fuel facial expressions, this one hasn't aged well.

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8. Santa Cruz's Looney 'Toons


Weird doesn't necessarily mean bad. Santa Cruz and Steel City Media smashed it out of the park with this colourful launch for the Bronson. Bryceland, Josh Lewis and K-Rad all get the cartoon treatment in a trippy edit that even made it into our top ten videos of last year.

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9. Specialized's Stumpjumper Campaign


Specialized's newest generation of Stumpjumper launched with a great, left-field video, but that's not what we're showing you here. After the main launch, the marketing campaign for the bike only went further down the rabbit hole. A talk show, a period drama, a bobble head mascot, and more strangeness have all followed. W E I R D.

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10. Knolly's 'Symbiosis: In The Shadows' video



We have no idea what's going on here, but the article that accompanied the video says "As life becomes more complicated and busy, the rider and monster inside Dylan is torn away and trapped in an alternate dark world of confusion and struggle." The part where the rider is having questionable blue fluid from a syringe labeled "school" dripped into his mouth was especially... unorthodox.

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This is just scratching the surface... which weird-as-hell MTB marketing videos did we miss?

Posted In:
Other eMTB Videos Knolly Santa Cruz Bicycles Specialized YT Industries Bobby Root Brandon Semenuk Kyle Strait