We know, we know. This Ellen Unwerth/Fallon ad for Equinox Fitness has been out since January already. But here's the thing. Everyone had a heart attack over the ad in the series which featured Catholic nuns gathered around a male figure model, but registered less fuss over this one in which women marked for cosmetic surgery are snubbed while the "naturally" fit woman gets the guy.
From Stuart Elliott at the New York Times: According to Eric Sorensen, Fallon's copywriter, group creative director and co-campaign developer, "That dovetails with the company's goal of "taking a different approach to fitness..." by stressing "the life benefit of working out" rather than the short-term results (as appealing as they may be)...The campaign comes from the insight that there's a deeper reason people work out than to get into shape."
People work out so they can be attractive to the opposite sex; that's their "deeper insight"?
We're not sure that message of the naturally fit woman winning out over the surgically enhanced women is actually the loudest one in this ad. Or even close to it. Beyond the sorority-girl circling of fat and Sharpied liposuction lines on the models' skin, what is the difference between the physiques of these women? The model in the middle could just as easily switch places with any of the other models in the ad, and the message would remain the same. Further, there's nothing to indicate that the women in the middle hasn't had any procedures; for all we know, she's just post-op while the others are pre-op. And while these women clearly don't need liposuction, the message the ad sends most loudly is that the thin women in bikinis and stilettos aren't thin enough. The unhappy looks on their faces aren't necessarily or obviously about not getting the guy - everyone knows (if we're to believe the general worldview of Madison Avenue, music videos, Maxim, Cosmo, etc.) that models in bikinis and stilettos will always attract men. More likely, these models look unhappy because, despite constant dieting and working out, they're still not thin enough - at least, according to ads like this one.
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