If issues had gone to plan, Maserati would have unwrapped its essential Grecale SUV at an occasion in Milan at first of this week. However they didn’t go to plan. Maserati as a substitute determined to can the reveal in October, pushing the worldwide unveiling again to early 2022 because of chip shortages, although the well-known Italian model’s identify was very undoubtedly within the information.

The publicity got here courtesy of an armed protester who turned up on the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year outdated who shot three folks, killing two, throughout unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August.

Given his identify to media as “Maserati Mike”, and geared up with an AR-15-style rifle and a megaphone, the bearded weirdo actually did have a Maserati, however it’s most likely not one the Italian model desires to present airtime to. The battered 2000s Quattroporte sedan appeared like a bag of spanners when the protester fired it as much as go away the scene, which he did with such enthusiasm he virtually smoked the rear tires. Keep stylish, Kenosha.

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However Maserati Mike is simply the newest in a protracted line of examples of awkward unintended model publicity.

OJ Simpson’s Ford Bronco

Till the launch of the newest retro Bronco, the one factor most individuals may let you know about Ford’s SUV is that it was the automobile O.J. Simpson utilized in a police chase so sluggish we’re shocked the TV helicopter pilot didn’t go to sleep on the stick attempting to maintain tempo.

President Kennedy’s Lincoln Continental

Having your automobile chosen because the official wheels for the President of america makes for nice PR, however Lincoln may by no means have imagined how the picture of its Continental would turn out to be seared into the general public’s consciousness on account of the tragic occasions of November 22, 1963. Let’s face it, can anybody bear in mind what a ’63 Imperial or Caddy seems to be like with no cheeky Google search?

5 years later Oldsmobile had its personal Kennedy-related PR catastrophe when photographs of younger Ted’s Delmont 88 being hauled out of the water at Chappaquiddick had been splashed world wide following the drowning of aide Mary Jo Kopechne.

Paul Walker And The Porsche Carrera GT

Associated: Police Report Says Porsche That Killed Walker Was Going Over 100MPH

As if having to take care of the protection of actor Paul Walker’s fiery dying in a Carrera GT 58 years after James Dan met his finish in a 550 Spyder wasn’t awkward sufficient, Porsche was then hit by a lawsuit from each Walker’s daughter and the widow of the automobile’s driver, Roger Rodas. Meadow Walker’s authorized crew claimed the V10 supercar was unsafe, however Porsche, risking wanting uncaring to defend its fame, disagreed. A decide dismissed Rodas’s claims, however Porsche was compelled to settle out of court docket with Walker and Walker’s father.

The Oklahoma Bomber’s Ryder Rental Truck

It’s stated the there’s no such factor as unhealthy publicity, however it’s arduous to place a optimistic spin on a home terrorist utilizing certainly one of your rental vehicles to explode a authorities constructing killing 168 folks, together with 19 youngsters. Timothy McVeigh stuffed a Ryder rental truck filled with explosive materials earlier than parking it in entrance of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Constructing in Oklahoma in 1995, lighting the fuse and fleeing the scene. We’re guessing he took out the total insurance coverage on that one.

The Large Three Bosses’ Personal Jets

When bosses of the Large Three auto corporations appeared in entrance of congress asking for a bailout throughout the 2008 monetary disaster, the general public wasn’t fully unsympathetic. However when it transpired that they’d all arrived in Washington on non-public jets, and that GM CEO Rick Wagoner’s roundtrip price $20,000 versus $288 for a Northwest Airways ticket taking the identical route, the ensuing publicity was lower than beneficial.

Volvo’s Crash Sensor Meltdown

Associated: Volvo Says Making An EV Generate 70 P.c Extra Emissions Than Its ICE Equal

On this occasion Volvo actually was anticipating some huge protection for its S60, and that’s what it acquired, however for all of the incorrect causes. Throughout an illustration of the sedan’s emergency auto braking system in entrance of a crowd of journalists, the S60 was pushed in the direction of the again of a truck, however did not cease and ploughed straight into the again of it. Tesla endured a equally squirmy PR catastrophe 9 years later when Tesla designer Franz von Holzhausen threw metal balls on the Cybrtruck’s home windows, proving that that they weren’t fairly as unbreakable as Tesla thought.

Ted Bundy’s Beetle

If good-looking, educated and charming Ted Bundy didn’t match with most individuals’s concept of a serial killer, then his selection of automobile was equally unlikely. As a substitute of a seedy Ford Econoline van, Bundy used two VW Beetles: a tan ’68 Bug he’d purchased in Tacoma, Washington, and later, after his escape from custody, a ’72 Tremendous Beetle stolen in Florida. Now it wasn’t simply the terrifying moist climate dealing with that had Bug passengers questioning in the event that they had been going to make it dwelling alive. If there was a saving grace for VW, it was that it had moved on to the Golf by the point Bundy was apprehended for the final time.