The advertising firm for 24-Hour Nautilus…excuse me, 24-Hour Fitness, as they now like to be called….should be hit in the head with the reality stick a few times. First there was that billboard that showed some (skinny) aliens and stated "When they come, they'll eat the fat ones first." This billboard actually incensed a group of overweight people so much that they staged a protest right in front of a 24-Hour Fitness here in San Francisco, and I agree, they should feel offended by the ad. The gym's message is poorly delivered on more than one level. For one thing, for every success story of the person who dropped 100 pounds by changing their sedentary lifestyle, there are others, other "fat" people who exercise frequently, but will never, ever be a size 8, or even a 10. Now, I'm not obese by any means, but what I do know is when I moved here five years ago, I weighed 35 pounds less than I do now. I've joined gyms, I've bought low-fat pudding and light butter, low-fat cookies and chicken instead of beef, I drink lots of water and walk everywhere since I don't own a car. I work out three times a week now, 1 01/2 to 2 hours a time, and guess what? The scale hasn't budged in over a year, no matter what I do. So, not every overweight person can buy a gym membership, go a couple of times a week, and then go shopping at Jil Sander.
For another thing, why do overweight people have to be constantly mocked and vilified? As if they they don't already hear enough shitty comments. As if they don't already have low self-esteem. I'm sure that the lady who used to get on my bus in the morning, who has to walk with a cane and can't fit into the regular seats, really enjoys being overweight. Why do we have to be privy to yet another fat joke, plastered on a billboard in 20-foot high letters this time? What if someone replaced the word "fat" with the word "black?" Is it funny now? Would that be tolerated? I think not.
As if that ad wasn't bad enough, their most recent one depicts a Cindy-Crawford lookalike dressed in a black formal gown, spaghetti straps and all, with huge, HUGE boxing gloves on. Just standing there looking vapid with her mouth half open, in a gown and boxing gloves the likes of which I've never seen before, they're so huge. (I thought they had to be fake, but Avery thinks they may be the kind of gloves used for "Foxy Boxing." Ugh, double ugh.) Here's a novel idea: why not use a real woman who boxes for their ad? Contrary to the narrow-minded ad-man's belief that all women boxers are built like brick shithouses and named Olga, real women who box are usually quite in shape, and many of them are *gasp* actually attractive! Do they really think that men will run to their nearest 24-Hour Fitness trying to meet the kind of fantasy woman in the ad? Do they think that women will sign up for a years worth of treadmilling on the chance that they may get results of supermodel-like proportions? I'd like to think that the general public isn't that stupid…but then again…
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