The internet is forever, folks, and you'd best remember that. Why, because what you say, write, or do can live on for all of eternity, as everything is saved, everything is backed up, and nothing is truly deleted. And that's how we know that, while there's no mention of former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale on Noise Media's site introducing the world to the PR company's new relationship with Indian Motorcycles, the Wayback Machine never forgets.
And neither does the original press release still sitting in my inbox.
Why does this matter? Well, over the last week or so, there's been a weirdly simultaneous campaign to brand Indian's main rival, Harley-Davidson, as "woke and gay," while seemingly pimping Indian from a number of prominent right-wing influencers. The suddenness and starkly similar wording contained within those posts raised many an eyebrow, not only due to Harley cowtowing to right-wing pressure a year or so ago, which should've got these people off the brand's back, but also because it felt like an ad campaign.
It felt as if Indian Motorcycles, which is going through a supposed rebirth since Polaris sold the company to Carolwood LP—a private equity firm—had orchestrated the whole thing, and rather than telling folks why they should buy an Indian, the company was just calling its competition slurs. It was, and is, a bad look. And unlucky for Indian's new brass, including its new CEO, one of our eagle-eyed readers remembered Parscale being named in the original press release, went looking at Noise Media's Indian Motorcycles homepage, and found the political operative's name had been stricken from the record.
A curious occurrence given the spotlight on the brand in recent days. And there are more "coincidences" than just Parscale's name being erased.
Spotted by The Vintagent and explored in the outlet's piece, it highlights the original Noise Media press release stating it had become the PR agency of record for Indian Motorcycle. In that original statement, there's a whole lot of normal pomp and circumstance that you'd expect from a PR company landing a whale the size of Indian and its new owners, Carolwood. But within the release, as remembered by The Wayback Machine and your truly's hoarder-like inbox, you also get this tidbit of information.
"As part of this next chapter, we’ll be working closely with Brad Parscale, President Trump’s ex-campaign manager, who is leading Indian Motorcycle’s wider brand and positioning work," states Noise Media, adding, "Brad is setting the vision for how the brand returns to what made it iconic and our role at Noise is to help bring that to life through paid media." Why does this matter? Because Parscale was not only the former campaign manager for President Trump, he promotes these types of paid influencer campaigns through his PR firms (Clocktower X and Salem Media Group). Parscale was also forced to register as an Israeli government agent, and that matters a lot in the context of the Indian vs. Harley state of affairs.
Since the October attacks, Israeli government-backed PR groups have used extensive paid influencer campaigns to attempt to turn public opinion in favor of Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza, its push for the US-Israeli-led Iran war, and its fomenting of unrest in the broader Middle East, as well as its continued annexation of Palestinian and Lebanese land. Parscale's Clocktower X and Salem Media Group were two of those PR agencies, which is what forced him to register as an agent of the Israeli government.
According to The Intercept, "Israel initially directly hired Parscale’s firm, Clock Tower X, last September with a contract worth $6 million. The new filing reveals that his firm has received over $15 million from Havas Media Network, an international media company, on behalf of the Israeli state," adding, "The document shows that Parscale directed over $500,000 for ads to Salem Media Representatives, a subsidiary of Salem Media. Although Parscale was hired to integrate pro-Israel messaging into Salem Media shows — which feature conservative commentators such as Hugh Hewitt, Larry Elder, and Scott Jennings — these payments to the conservative media conglomerate on behalf of Israel were not previously known."
And much has come out about these paid campaigns after the Israeli government stiffing influencers on promised payments, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's increase in "Diplomacy" spending from $125 million to a whopping $670 million each year. But the pattern remains the same; a group of influencers all get talking points and coalesce around them with similar wording. As is the case here, with right-wing influencers calling out Harley-Davidson's former DEI initiatives, using the term "woke," along with a few slurs, and highlighting Indian as a true American brand.
The latter brings us back to the purported ad campaign, one that seemingly started with MMA fighter Sean Strickland.
As reported in my prior story, and through The Bulwark's original story highlighting the matter, Strickland had called out Harley-Davidson in the past after right-wing pundit Robby Starbuck went on a crusade against the Motor Co. a year or so ago for merely acknowledging DEI initiatives. At the time, Strickland stated he was going to get rid of his Harley motorcycles due to Harley's stance on the subject, though, as recently as only a few months ago, Strickland's Instagram shows he still had a Harley in his garage. However, a few days ago, Indian Motorcycle's official Instagram showed Strickland picking up a new motorcycle, collaborating with the MMA fighter in what appears to be in some brand ambassador capacity.
Photo by: Twitter The video was also shared on Twitter, which was itself reshared by Indian Motorcycle's new CEO, and former Harley-Davidson executive, Mike Kennedy, who had also been MIA from Twitter up until Strickland's collaboration since his appointment a few months ago. A detail one commenter relayed to RideApart and checked for authenticity. Yet, while that particular Reel was vanilla in the sense that normal brand ambassador content tends to be, Strickland then fired up his own Twitter account and relayed his feelings on the subject of switching brands.
"Officially made the switch to Indian Motorcycle," states the post, adding, "What does Indian stand for? No f**king clue, the way it should be. Everytime I got on my harley I was indirectly supporting radical ide[o]logy that actually pushing radical ide[o]logy on children. There is no going back from that." This message was not reshared by Indian Motorcycle, though a host of other right-wing influencers reshared it and offered "their own" thoughts on Harley-Davidson's fall from grace and Indian Motorcycle's "based" nature. Though, those thoughts' were so remarkably similar in wording to each other, it led many to believe that Indian, or someone within Indian's marketing apparatus, had instigated an ad campaign.
It's worth noting here that Starbuck had also gone after Indian Motorcycle for having DEI language, which the company removed from its site in 2024. So it, too, was "woke" at one point, setting aside the more inclusive language about the same time as Harley-Davidson. Again, another interesting "coincidence" in this whole saga, as both companies have a history of using DEI language, and both have pulled the plug on those initiatives. Yet, it's Harley coming under scrutiny, while these influencers are promoting Indian.
As I mentioned in my original report, I reached out to Noise Media and asked a host of questions about the company's work for Indian and about the situation described above. No one responded. Given the recent revelations, I reached out again with more questions and have yet to hear back. I've also reached out to Indian Motorcycle's brass with the same questions I posed to Noise Media, but haven't heard back from them either.
As such, it's unclear what actually occurred, and whether or not this was a spontaneous act of taking shots at Harley-Davidson while promoting Indian Motorcycle, or a concerted force paid for by dark money within the press relations world of influencers.
