THE archetypal chopper  the style of stretched-out, bare-bones motorcycle that Peter Fonda piloted 40 years ago in “Easy Rider”  is idling at a crossroads in its evolution.

Honda  that’s right, Honda  has created its own mass-produced, made-in-Japan take on the breed of custom bikes named for their minimalist design. And it has introduced this new machine, the 2010 Fury, with an advertising campaign that’s about as far from “You meet the nicest people” as can be imagined.

A 30-second TV ad for the new model delivers a rapid-fire barrage of rage, destruction and disaster. In strobe-light succession it menaces viewers with flashes of bared fangs. Rams bash horns. Glass shatters. A wrecking ball topples a wall. A boxer is knocked senseless. Fingers, then a fist, punch out from the screen. A car explodes. Lightning lashes the blackened earth.

And that’s just the first nine seconds.

The commercial ends with “It’s a Honda” spelled out in ragged letters. Which, after all the hypercaffeinated action that precedes it, is akin to learning that your home economics teacher has been moonlighting as a pole dancer.