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Harley-Davidson Responds to NY Times Article

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You may remember the NY Times article that we mentioned a few days ago that was critical of the company’s current status and direction. In response to the NY Times article, Harley-Davidson is running the above ad in an attempt to provide a counter-argument to the criticism that the company is on shaky ground.

It should come with little surprise that Harley-Davidson is again playing on Patriotic themes and rhetoric that shifts the focus from the fact the company has serious issues ahead of it, and to date not clear plan on how they are going to overcome them. In addition to this ad, a message was sent out to all Harley-Davidson employees, read it after the jump.

Jim Ziemer, Harley’s president and CEO, revealed the ad in the following email to employees:

Dear fellow employees,

As you may know, The New York Times wrote a decidedly one-sided and naïve story on the state of our business this past Sunday. Unsurprisingly, Harley-Davidson employees, dealers and customers disagreed.  So, we decided to show how we all feel about this story and created an ad that we are running this Sunday in the same business section of The New York Times. 

You can see the ad below.  It reminds me of how proud I am to work with such a passionate and dedicated group of people. There’s no question that 2009 will be a challenging year for our business.  But, there’s also no question that Harley-Davidson is addressing the challenges. We have the right strategy, the right dealers, the right employees and the right attitude and spirit to emerge from the recession stronger than ever.

Thank you for all you do to support one of the world’s most respected and strongest brands, Harley-Davidson.

Let’s Ride.

Ziemer plans to retire later this year.

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