27 Apr

That ‘beach body’ advert

Might as well keep my finger on the pulse, be in there with the zeitgeist, up to date etc.

I’ve seen that there’s a whole hoo-ha about this ‘beach body ready’ weight loss poster that I’ve seen on London Underground platforms:

Beach-Body-Ready-ad

As soon as I saw it, I knew it’d only be a matter of time before women’s magazines, newspapers, those with feminist leanings, medical professionals (and so on) got hold of it.
In fact, the cynic in me says it was designed with that in mind: a little extra publicity to give the campaign a boost.

Here’s my two-penneth:

*It’s quite late in the year to be bringing out ‘beach body ready’ adverts. Given that it’s May (give or take), if someone hasn’t got the body of the woman on that poster, it’s unlikely they’ll look like her by June.

*What is ‘beach body’? Some women/guys think curvy figures look great, some think skinny looks great… the definition of a ‘good beach body’ is too subjective.

*I know it’s supposed to present a challenge, but the tone of the advert is slightly threatening.

*I might be wrong, but I think most women will just look at that ‘perfect body’ (photoshopped… she hasn’t got a single line or wrinkle on her skin) and dismiss it as irrelevant. I do exactly the same when people post pictures of guys with perfectly sculpted eight packs, pecs, shoulders, with square jaws etc.
I’m never going to look like that, nor do I want to (well, it’s not important enough for me to put the effort in to look like that), so I find those images – relative to myself – irrelevant.
So, despite what Protein World say,  I don’t believe these ads ‘motivate rather than commiserate’. I think they just make people feel a bit ‘meh’.

*The ad is actually promoting just another faddy, quick fix diet – a whole load of protein supplements i.e get ‘beach body ready’… then balloon again, three months later, as you didn’t go the simple route: eat less, exercise more.
What’s being promoted is not much better than raspberry ketones or cabbage soup diets.
Protein World claim that their supplements ‘help you become healthier, leaner, fitter, and stronger’… but only in conjunction with lots of exercise and a healthy diet. Why not just save the money, and continue with the exercise and diet?

*It does go the route of ‘buy our products or look like a fat mess this summer’. That mercenary approach never gets a good reaction, just like charity ads that try to imply you’re a bad person if you don’t care about their cause.

The long and the short of it is; the ads have been brought out late, they present such an unrealistic goal that the reaction to them is dismissive, they’re threatening/mercenary, and the product is nothing new (protein powders and supplements have been around for yonks).

Yes, the adverts have been given extra publicity, but – in all honesty – they’re just not very good.

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