Jorge Lorenzo pulls “Cribs”-style video after social network backlash

When Jorge Lorenzo agreed to make a video showing off his Barcelona house for one of his main sponsors, energy drinks company Monster, he could not have imagined the reaction it would garner. Just a few hours after it was published on YouTube Monday, the MotoGP racer asked Monster to take it down.

In the short film, made just before this year’s Valencia Grand Prix, Lorenzo shows a camera crew around his 1,200-square-meter hillside mansion in the El Maresme coastal municipality of Catalonia, revealing spectacular views, a cinema, an indoor swimming pool, a complete gymnasium and a rooftop Jacuzzi, complete with bikini-clad models. “I don’t have many parties because I’m a good kid,” Lorenzo tells the camera in English as he shows off the property’s discotheque.

With Spain in the grip of a financial crisis and unemployment at record highs, the social networks were abuzz with remonstrations. “We can’t ask for forgiveness, it was indefensible,” a spokesman for Lorenzo told EL PAÍS. According to the spokesman, Monster provided the models for the video, which was filmed without any preparation. To make matters worse, it was not even Lorenzo’s primary residence: he lives in Lugano, Switzerland.

The spokesman added that this style of video is commonplace in the United States, the market the film was intended for, hence Lorenzo’s use of English. MTV’s Cribs TV show, for example, is a hugely successful reality show in which the rich and famous give viewers a tour of their properties.

The former world champion, 26, makes around 14 million euros a year through his contract with Yamaha and sponsorship deals.