Any video from Danny MacAskill is bound to attract plenty of attention on social media – but his latest one has seen the Scottish trials ace come under criticism, due to its setting, the Playboy Mansion, plus the presence in the clip of several 'Playmates,' women dressed in Playboy Bunny outfits.
The Gothic-Tudor style Los Angeles home of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, aged 88, forms the backdrop to a video uploaded yesterday by MacAskill's sponsor Red Bull’s and flagged up by the cyclist to his followers on Facebook and Twitter.
The video, it has to be said, is a bit short on stunts, adding to a feeling held by many that it’s primarily gratuitous, and it also comes at a time when in the wider cycling world, women are pushing for equality, with the first edition of La Course by Le Tour de France taking place in Paris last weekend.
Plenty of MacAskill’s Facebook followers did like the video – more than 11,000 likes and 3,000 shares on the social network attests to that – and while there were many comments in favour of the video (by no means all of them printable), not everyone was enthusiastic.
One Facebook user, Stewart Lewis, said: “He can ride a bike for sure. But, still the Playboy mansion, bunny girls, old Hefner there's something proper strange about that whole thing, a bit Saviley. Red Bull, Extreme, extreme weird.”
Nick Hussey, founder of the clothing brand Vulpine – which sponsors the Matrix Fitness –Vulpine women’s cycling team – tweeted a picture of a Facebook post giving his reaction to the video, describing MacAskill as “… a role model… He has a responsibility. He’s in the public eye, chooses to be, and needs to think about his actions.”
If you’d actually like to see a video of MacAskill doing what he does best, we’d recommend watching this one produced for the BBC as part of its Commonwealth Games coverage which includes some stunning shots of the rider performing tricks on the Finnieston Crane which towers over the River Clyde.
Meanwhile, we’re with our friends over at Singletrack Magazine on this one, who we think sum it up quite well.
We won’t be featuring the latest video from @danny_macaskill on our site because, well, it’s 2014 and not the 1980s
— Singletrack Magazine (@singletrackmag) July 31, 2014
55 thoughts on “Danny MacAskill under fire over Playboy Mansion video”
Nicely put by Singletrack
Nicely put by Singletrack there.
I wonder, are there many female trials riders? It’s not an area of cycling I follow much and I’ve never seen any women in this branch of the sport. Maybe Mr MacAskill could do a video with one to redress the balance a bit?
Get over it. If it offends
Get over it. If it offends you, don’t watch it… I’m certainly not offended by the location, but the fact that it was shot at the Playboy mansion has not made me want to watch it, either.
It’s also strange that people
It’s also strange that people have focused on the well paid, attractive women who are there of their own volition but don’t give a monkeys about the monkeys that are stuck there, trapped in cages.
Can’t help but find it
Can’t help but find it slightly contradicting/hypercritical given Singletrack covered the Vain Vagrant release…
I took the piss slightly with
I took the piss slightly with his last video in Argentina – pointing out the rather conspicuous Red Bull helmet and the cheesy and not all staged cut away to Danny enjoying the refreshing taste of Red Bull.
I countered it by saying that i have no problem with someone making a bit of dough on the back of their talent.
However – i think Danny’s next trick should be of him jumping a shark because as far as im concerned this is where we are with this.
Somebody had to be offended,
Somebody had to be offended, it’s 2014 not the eighties.
Storm in a tea cup. By
Storm in a tea cup. By drawing attention to this video by doing an article like this will only make people want to watch it more.
I think the ‘Savile’
I think the ‘Savile’ reference in the quoted reaction to the video actually reads as a reference to Hugh Hefner, not Danny Mac.
leftsideoverhere wrote:I
I think you’re correct, I read it as “that whole thing” being Saviley and took “that whole thing” meaning the video but it’s more likely to be a reference to Hefner and his mansion. I think from a legal point of view I’d rather piss off a stunt bike rider than a cranky old multimillionaire!
Absolutely shocking!! I’ve
Absolutely shocking!! I’ve just watched the video and am lost for words.
The overreaction to this is more likely to point me in the direction of who to avoid in future.
I’ve been a supporter of women’s cycling since before it became fashionable.
Some of my best friends are women. Etc, etc…
EDIT: I forgot to mention the caged animals too, poor little sods!
Sad as it may be, there
Sad as it may be, there really is no down side for Red Bull on this one.
“We won’t be featuring the
“We won’t be featuring the latest video from @danny_macaskill on our site because, well, it’s 2014 and not the 1980s”
This isn’t actually a noble feminist comment about a how modern man has moved on from objectifying women.
It’s merely that while in the 1980s that video might have done us for that one before bed, with all that’s on the internet these days a woman in a bikini won’t even get the little lad to twitch.
So with the riding being average too there really isn’t much there.
cub wrote:”We won’t be
I like it, not much chance of that post lasting long here. :))
This is hillarious. If people
This is hillarious. If people are offended by this they really need a reality check. Its a guy riding a bike through the gardens of a house with some pretty ladies dotted about. Think about it. Anyone who wants to get up on their high horse and turn it into some political and social commentary is only trying to make themselves feel better about who they are.
Its Friday, Danny is a kick ass bike rider, Hugh Hefner is on his last legs, go have a drink and get on with your lives.
I cant help but think that
I cant help but think that Singletrack and yourselves are going to end up Streisanding this video.
It’s a bit shit, in fact very shit in comparison with his other stuff, but I’m not highly offended by it.
It’s just an advert for Red Bull, which is also shit, so they probably thought, quite rightly that a video of some tricks in to the Playboy Mansion would attract a lot of viewers, regardless of the quality of the stunts.
It seems a shame to say it,
It seems a shame to say it, what with the amazing skills involved, but these videos get very samey. The first was very impressive, the second I stopped watching half way through, and not sure if I can be bothered at all now.
If you don’ t give a monkeys
If you don’ t give a monkeys about the monkeys, does that mean you do give a monkeys?
“Danny is a role model…”
“Danny is a role model…” sorry don’t buy that. If we’re taking our moral guidance from some bloke who rides a bike quite well we’re all screwed.
While the vid is undeniably naff, it’s not a patch on those cyclepassion calendars – which the likes of Hannah Barnes seem happy enough to pose for – in terms of taking the sport back 20 years.
Oh and, incidentally, Road.cc was happy to showcase these in the past, so not sure you can take too much of the moral high ground: http://road.cc/content/news/28187-2011-cyclepassion-calendar-and-behind-scenes-dvd-sale-now-video.
Its a video with some pretty
Its a video with some pretty girls dressed in bunny costumes in it and a lad with exceptional talent doing a few stunts. I cant see the problem and neither can my Mrs who watched it as well.
You just have to listen to some of the comments made by the female cast of ITV’s “Loose Women” who at times are more degrading to men than this video ever is, but you cant make everyone happy all of the time.
The fact that you personally
The fact that you personally may not find such a video offensive does not mean that others have to agree with you. Nor does it make your dismissal of their complaints as an overreaction and hilarious any more valid.
If you’re still catching up on the problems with pervasive raunch culture then awesome; we’re all rooting for you. If it’s ok though, the rest of us are going to carry on and try and make things slightly better.
For “We’re all” I read
For “We’re all” I read “I’m”.
For “slightly better” I read “precisely how I think everyone should like things”.
I wasn’t aware you were the spokesperson for all things decent and inoffensive. But well done.
Meanwhile, like the video or dislike it, it’s up to each and every one of us. Just don’t assume to tell others what they should or shouldn’t like. It only draws more attention to it anyway, as this article has proven.
There’s a lot of ‘male
There’s a lot of ‘male privilege’ on display here. The problem with this video is that the vast majority of women won’t enjoy watching it, or have any desire to do so. For that reason, it’s polarising. For those of us in the industry, it makes our jobs even more difficult when it’s acceptable to showcase women in this way, alongside showing on-bike accomplishments.
You wouldn’t show this video to your kids, certainly not your daughters, if what you wanted to do was inspire them to ride bikes.
When i was 10 i used to do
When i was 10 i used to do wheelies in front of pretty girls to try and impress them.
Where is *my* Red Bull sponsorship deal?
🙁
More importantly, were the
More importantly, were the bunny girls wearing helmets?
I’m going to show the video
I’m going to show the video to my cats, show the little sods how good they’ve got it being able to roam free without being caged up.
There’s people on the street getting diseases from monkeys
Yeah, that’s what I said – they’re getting diseases from monkeys
Now there’s junkies with monkey disease
Who’s touching these monkeys, please
Leave these poor sick monkeys alone
They’ve got problems enough as it is.
What man?
Which man?
Who’s the man?
When’s a man a man?
What makes a man a man?
Am I a man?
Yes. Technically I am.
You. Gotta. Be. Kiddin’. Me.
You. Gotta. Be. Kiddin’. Me.
Do Vulpine think they own
Do Vulpine think they own MacAskill? What is with this nonsense? “He’s a role model, so he has to conform to our agenda and be of service to us”. How about this as an alternative, he should live for himself.
And let us not forget, they decry him for appearing with Bunny Girls, but “vulpine” means “foxy”, that’s right, their team is called the Foxy Women’s Cycling Team.
Feminists are the sexual perverts I worry about most, because it’s their dogmas which infect every corner of society, and to the highest levels of government. They’re the misogynists who propagate the view that the women who enjoy their sexual radiance and choose to share that aspect of themselves with the rest of us can’t be self-aware and intelligent but must necessarily be victims of male heterosexuality. And it’s the Feminists who are the man-haters who relentlessly promote the ideology that healthy male heterosexuality must be suppressed and hidden because it is dangerous, dirty and deviant.
iCrash wrote:Do Vulpine think
that’s the stupidest post i’ve ever read on road.cc, and that’s up against some pretty stiff competition. and it was your first try! you must be proud.
cactuscat wrote:iCrash
that’s the stupidest post i’ve ever read on road.cc, and that’s up against some pretty stiff competition. and it was your first try! you must be proud.— iCrash
Agreed.
Saw this come up in my
Saw this come up in my Facebook feed a couple of times. Didn’t watch it, as guessed he’d done stuff which is more fun and/or more amazing in terms of his undoubted skills. This, just scrunched up my nose, and said “Nah, he’s probably done better.”
This craze for ‘competitive
This craze for ‘competitive being offended’ should be made an olympic sport. All the competitors have to watch increasingly innocuous youtube videos as the elimination heats progress and the one, who like that vulpine fella, can still produce a stroke inducing apoplexy of faux moral outrage at the most innocent footage the judges could find on the entire web gets the gold. Going by this thread the UK has strength in depth in this sport so we should do well.
Northernbike wrote:This craze
So very true.
Have you read the Twitter feed of “that Vulpine fella”? (Warning – do *not* attempt to do this on a full stomach)
He’s trying *so* hard to be liked by women that it is positively embarrassing. He’ll be complaining of period-pains next.
I wonder what he made of La Pendleton getting her kit off for GQ magazine and other adverts? Is that “so 1980’s” too? Was she being “irresponsible”?
Have the rules for ‘Competitive Being Offended’ been properly codified yet? If not then we British clearly need to step up to the mark and show the world how to do it … once again.
1) If it is true that this is
1) If it is true that this is 2014 and not the 1980’s then why will a sports woman who is excellent but plain looking earn far less than a less talented woman who is better looking?
2) What percentage of ‘top-shelf’ publications are owned, managed or edited by women? Exactly who is exploiting who?
levermonkey wrote:1) If it is
Because, thanks in no small part to those who simply accept that status quo whilst no doubt claiming not to be sexist, it takes more than 30 years to fix sexism…?
Let’s be under no illusions.
Let’s be under no illusions. For the corporate entities on both sides of this fence, it’s all PR at the end of the day.
For the rest of us, we’re grown ups and can decide for ourselves where this bit of “advertainment” falls on our moral compass. Some don’t like it, some do, some don’t give a shit either way. Fair enough.
Personally I think adorning any ad (be it for bikes, energy drinks or jubilee clips) with scantily-clad women is an anachronism. But then, this fits the bill because Playboy and its reanimated cadaver of a founder are anachronisms too. It couldn’t be more outdated if Danny had doused himself in Hai fucking Karate.
I don’t think MacAskill’s done himself any favours. Red Bull, on the other hand, will be loving it.
Some people have too much
Some people have too much time on their hands if this offends them. American gun ownership, war, famine, political corruption, greedy bankers; this is just a bloke on a bike and some girls. I hate the phrase but get a life.
It’s lame. But it’s lame
It’s lame. But it’s lame because it’s lame, not because it is even remotely sexist or mysogenistic.
I hope the publicity the outraged are giving this video only boosts the money Macaskill makes as a result.
Oh and for what it’s worth, the eighties were really no less enlightened than today.
(No subject)
(|:
I liked the comment that
I liked the comment that pointed out the previous articles about the cycle-passion calendar here. There’s your high-handed journalism…
Seems road.cc was so horrified they needed to run the story and benefit from the resulting web-traffic while (pretending to?) hand-wringing about it. Somewhat reminiscent of the usual tabloid fodder when they write pieces about how some celeb is horrified at the release of some betraying sex-vid/photo/etc. all the time gaining circulation and slyly raising the profile of the “scandal”. The Tabloids don’t show the sex-vid, but they piggy back to gain circulation and in the process make very sure all their readers know where it is and can find it if they want.
Somehow it never, ever, occurs to editors, journalists and cycling website administrators that it might be more moral to self-censor and sacrifice circulation. 8|
I haven’t watched it, but as
I haven’t watched it, but as long as he parks up with his front wheel in a bum crack at the end a’ la Billy Connolly, that should be fine.
A PR disaster.
Id be
A PR disaster.
Id be intetested to know if this was his choice or asked to do it by his sponsors who pay his bills.
I’m not offended by the
I’m not offended by the video. Most people wouldn’t be.
But whether you (or he) like(s) it or not, he *is* a role model. And he’s perpetuating a stereotype of women being the submissive objects of desire. Ditto podium girls, a ‘tradition’ that is well past its sell-by date.
I really want my son to get into cycling when he’s old enough. But I don’t want him thinking that fun tricks or feats of endurance are what men do, while women are just things that stand around to be perved over. The ‘it’s just a bit of fun, lighten up’ defence doesn’t work – people said the same about minstrel shows and jokes about Pakistanis. Neither are acceptable any longer.
Just quickly on the ‘Savile-ey’ point though, that’s extremely harsh. One might disagree with Hugh Hefner’s lifestyle, but he is up front and honest about it. In his own way (why is not one I’d choose to endorse) he advocates freedom of expression and freedom from adhering to society’s norms. On the other hand Savile was a psychopathic predatory paedophile and necrophiliac who hid his darker urges behind a jolly public persona, using his influence to keep his disgusting abuses hushed up. Completely different.
Won’t someone please think of
Won’t someone please think of the children?!?
I’d originally wanted my baby son to learn to ride a bike one day, but that plan’s ruined now! I might as well buy him a Panzer tank and dress him as a Nazi!!!
This video is a bloody outrage and sends Britain back to the dark ages. In fact, I’m so distraught I’m going to have to go look at pictures of the lovely Cavandish’s in order to calm my nerves. Mmm, Peta…
Jonny_Trousers wrote:Won’t
Hollow laugh. Godwin’s Law, so soon. =)) =D>
Heaven help the
Heaven help the offended/degraded brigade who watched it should look at popular music videos, post watershed TV or the like for fear of apoplexy.
If there’s one thing that
If there’s one thing that really has jumped the shark, it’s ‘hilarious’ references to Godwin’s Law.
I keep forgetting what
I keep forgetting what ‘jumping the shark’ means. Every time I look it up, I forget it again.
truffy wrote:I keep
It means the same thing as “Nuking the Fridge”. 😀
I think they should’ve had
I think they should’ve had Peter Sagan riding no handed wheelies pinching every arse in sight.
It must have been hard.
In
It must have been hard.
In fact, after the shoot, I reckon he’ll have gone back to the hotel and had a stiff one.
Diet coke. Bullshit.
Diet coke. Bullshit.
‘Danny gets the ride of his
‘Danny gets the ride of his life at the Playboy Mansion’ is how the Mirror describes it.
Bring back Beavis and Butthead.
Last to the party but dull,
Last to the party but dull, boring video of MacAskill doing lots of samey stunts Ive seen in about 5 other videos of his but now with added *tits*.
Pathetic way to get views for a video.
I’m not offended by the content but I am disappointed that Danny (and the people behind this video) think it takes this to get me to watch.
What this says to me is that he is now spent and has fuck all else to offer. I wont be watching any of his other videos.
Shitty clickbait crap.
What is amusing is how it dredges up all the male privilege and misogynist comments, and how those people think that if they arent offended then no-one else has the right to be.
Definitely sorts the wheat from the chaff.
Loved the Video.
Loved the Video. 👿
Read the breathless drooling
Read the breathless drooling in mainstream rags like the Record or the Mirror reporting this story:
“ride of his life”, “eye candy”, “saucy stunners”, ” scantily-clad models”, “buxom beauties”, “every male’s fantasy” etc etc …
… pathetic out-of-date misogyny.