Past the point of endurance
I think we have new rival to the "Special K" ads in the category of "jaw-droppingly gendered". Victoria Pendleton, a UK Olympic track cyclist is doing a series of promos for Hovis, the central conceit of which is that wholemeal bread as a healthy breakfast. So far, so good!
However, whether on the general principle of "no-one lost money by making an ad too unsubtle", or in an attempt to "punch through" the apparently pervasive idea that carbs are the part of the food pyramid best buried deep, deep unground, they go just a bit further than that. Specifically, Pendleton says "... it helps me stop snacking. Just as well, when you wear Lycra for a living."
Firstly, just on the mere facts: the idea of, not just a full-tiume athlete, but a bleeding cyclist nibbling dainting on a piece of toast, then thinking "oh, I'd better not eat anything until lunchtime!" is more than a little ludicrous. OK, the track types perhaps don't put away quite the epic quantities of carbs that road cyclists do, being somewhat further down the "endurance spectrum", but the nature of their training regime is likely to make that distinction less than one might think. We're still talking a lot of calories, here. And the whole "Lycra for a living" bit... ick. Granted, she does probably make more in actual cash terms from semi-dodgy photoshoots than she does from sports grants or indeed competition, and doubtless she and Hovis would laugh it off as "ironic". But for me it's not so much over the line of "bad message to be sending" as catching various Lynx campaigns on the back straight and ending the "sheer idiocy" race several laps early.
After hearing this particular a couple of times, I was moved to peevedly google it, and found this blog post on the topic, which commentary I found pretty spot-on. Warning, now contains some additional ranting by me in the comments section.
However, whether on the general principle of "no-one lost money by making an ad too unsubtle", or in an attempt to "punch through" the apparently pervasive idea that carbs are the part of the food pyramid best buried deep, deep unground, they go just a bit further than that. Specifically, Pendleton says "... it helps me stop snacking. Just as well, when you wear Lycra for a living."
Firstly, just on the mere facts: the idea of, not just a full-tiume athlete, but a bleeding cyclist nibbling dainting on a piece of toast, then thinking "oh, I'd better not eat anything until lunchtime!" is more than a little ludicrous. OK, the track types perhaps don't put away quite the epic quantities of carbs that road cyclists do, being somewhat further down the "endurance spectrum", but the nature of their training regime is likely to make that distinction less than one might think. We're still talking a lot of calories, here. And the whole "Lycra for a living" bit... ick. Granted, she does probably make more in actual cash terms from semi-dodgy photoshoots than she does from sports grants or indeed competition, and doubtless she and Hovis would laugh it off as "ironic". But for me it's not so much over the line of "bad message to be sending" as catching various Lynx campaigns on the back straight and ending the "sheer idiocy" race several laps early.
After hearing this particular a couple of times, I was moved to peevedly google it, and found this blog post on the topic, which commentary I found pretty spot-on. Warning, now contains some additional ranting by me in the comments section.