Planet
Fitness has come out with quite a few ads recently depicting people who are
seriously into working out in a negative light by making them appear
unintelligent. This specific ad is about a bodybuilder who is touring the gym
and keeps repeating, "I lift things up and put them down" to the
employee. His accent makes him sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger, which brings a
whole another argument of intelligence and opinion into the ad.
Bodybuilders
have always had a somewhat negative persona in the fitness world because of the
extremes they will sometimes go to look a certain way, and they have depicted
this precisely in this ad with the man with huge muscles wearing almost no
clothes being asked questions about himself and his only answer to any of it
being “I lift things up and put them down”.
It
can be argued that this ad is culturally correct in it’s stereotype because
there are a lot of bodybuilders/athletes who are not very intelligent but it is
also forming a complete stereotype for every person who is committed to their health
and exercise. Take my husband for example, he is an educated man who works in
the IT field, is a Marine and is a competitive bodybuilder. Every time he meets
someone new and they learn about the different interests he has you can see
them trying to fit him into a certain stereotype and fail because they don’t
know and haven’t met too many people like him. Their view of a certain culture,
in his case three, is questioned.
The
irony to this commercial is that Planet Fitness has a motto that they are a
judgment free zone but this commercial is obviously judging group of
people as a whole based on cultural stereotypes that have been formed. Even the
music at the end says dumb repeatedly in the tune.
I found you comments very compelling. I specifically like your ending comments on how they promote their gym as this judgement free place and in all their commercials they seem to pick out a different part of the fitness world and judge it. They have one commercial I saw with a yoga studio and all the people are toned and lean looking in crazy yoga poses talking about how toxic free they are. Then the person that does not fit into this group makes an awkward comment and suddenly they all look at her weird. These commercials is are oxymoron's in the sense they are judging people that they say will judge you if you don't come to Planet Fitness. Great pick a lot of great info in such a small commercial.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement. However, I do believe that this ad targets the people who have don't regularly go to the gym or work out. It promotes getting people to the gym who may not already be in great shape and helping those who want to get there. Sure, it does pose a negative stereotype on the people who are already in great shape. But it did probably help Planet Fitness expand their client base and target those who may need a bit more help over those who are already there.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with many of your comments. I agree with you saying that it is not fair to stereotype a body builder, or someone who is very strong into being unintelligent. My dad is also a very bulky, strong guy, and most people stereotype him as being mean, and unfriendly, but he is just a big teddy bear once known. I think that your ending comment is very true, and very well put. I also think that when going to a gym it is very intimidating when someone that large comes in, and starts lifting extreme weights, so I think that Planet Fitness may be promoting that that is not the type of gym they are, they are more of a gym that promotes anyone working out. I loved your comments, very thought provoking.
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