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No intimidation "gyms"

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  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    snickerscharlie wrote: »
    To anyone who may have been living in an advertising wasteland and has missed the fact that PF's marketing campaign negatively targets what they call "lunks" - this one's for you:

    https://youtu.be/yhDcjlYrwmQ

    PS: No dog in this fight, either. I workout at home. Methinks their "Judgement Free Zone" campaign is merely a watered-down version of the same premise, though.

    The narrative of all the PF ads I've seen posted on this thread (versus the ones I see on TV, which focus on low price and 24/7 hours) is

    Prospective Customer: My experience or belief about gyms is horrible and absurd thing X. [Lunk alarm is part of anecdote/reminiscene of prospective customer]
    PF employee trying to make a sale: That won't happen to you here. We're not a gym.

    Not sure what TV you're seeing but all the national ads I've seen are the videos posted here which don't mention cost or hours. There may be some local ads that just focus on price and 24 hours (probably the case as not all PFs are 24/7). The national ads I've seen all start with examples of what PF considers examples stereotyped "lunk" behavior. Next, they show the perspective PF member in an almost confessional tone talking to the PF employee who looks at and talks to them like the employee is a grief counselor.

    Even the copy on their main club pages don't mention cost or hours as their appeal. Here's an example, but it's the same on all Chicago clubs, and probably nationwide:

    "We strive to create a workout environment where everyone feels accepted and respected. That’s why at Planet Fitness Chicago (Streeterville), IL we take care to make sure our club is clean and welcoming, our staff is friendly, and our certified trainers are ready to help. Whether you’re a first-time gym user or a fitness veteran, you’ll always have a home in our Judgement Free Zone™."

    I checked the club I used to go to (which was completely clean and everyone was friendly, which has been my experience with all clubs), and by contrast it pushes it's convenience and location and hours and the availability of classes how that helps one stick to a workout routine.

    I don't think the PF ad copy quoted above is bad in and of itself, of course, but it shows their push is about how it's supposedly non intimidating, not cost and hours. In conjunction with the ads slamming other gyms and gym-goers, I do think the intended effect is to make you think other gyms will make you feel disrespected and unwelcome, and that they will not be clean.

    This was interesting to look at, since as mentioned above I've found it very strange that virtually every newbie gym goer posting about how PF is best because it's not mean and the equipment is always available also adds that it's clean, as if this was supposed to be some special thing vs. other gyms.
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    edited November 2018
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    annaskiski wrote: »
    I think that this whole thread shows that people are overly crazy about political correctness.

    It's a friggin' funny commercial! (set of commercials)

    Come on! If you lift you aren't really insulted. This is more pride disguised as offense....

    I mean, I don't know if this is an entirely unpredictable take from someone who finds the ads funny.

    If you dislike lifters enough to find the ads funny, it's not surprising any negative feeling they have about the ads will be attributed to "pride."

    How could they be insulted, anyway? They're just "lunks," right?

    I lift regularly. I find the ads hilarious...

    (and I love lifters, and hang with them a lot).
    But the ones I hang with are not 'offended' by PF commercials.

    I have to say, if you are really offended by them, I am baffled....
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    The "lunks" I hang around are engineers who think its fun to heave iron at lunch.
    The company gym is loud with grunting and clanging weights at lunch....and not one single one of them would be offended by being called a 'lunk'.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    I'm not offended being called skinny minny or being told I'm too thin and if someone told me to eat a sandwich I'd laugh, but that doesn't make it okay to make fun of people for being thin or to spread stereotypes about supposedly b-chy thin people.

    I also wouldn't mind someone seeing me lifting and saying "lemurcat! you are becoming quite a lunkhead," since I'd know they didn't really mean it and I would know they were commenting on something I consider positive (and since the insulting aspect is muscle-y and dumb and I know I'm not thought to be either, really), but that doesn't mean that calling people big and dumb is okay or not extremely insulting in some contexts (in a more serious context I'd be way more offended by being seriously called dumb or slutty or uneducated (all related to the stereotypes PF is using) than being told I was fat).
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
    edited November 2018
    kimny72 wrote: »
    Bry_Fitness70 wrote: »
    mreichard wrote: »
    Bry_Fitness70 wrote: »

    I belong to PF, a community rec center, and a workplace gym - I’ve been a gym rat my entire adult life so I’ve seen it all when it comes to gym cultures.

    I’m offended by very little, including PF animosity. I’m more amused than anything with this, the faux outrage / faux victim-hood associated with poking fun at “lunks”, as if they are some downtrodden race of people who are getting discriminated against. Can we redraft the 14th Amendment to include lunks? Check with your local Congressman, anything is possible.

    The TV advertising targets a set of behaviors which are greatly exaggerated for amusement and easy to refrain from engaging in - the best response is to not give PF your ten bucks and invest your time in causes with actual victims who need your help, the bros at the gym are going to be just fine.

    On the scale of problems in the world, this one is pretty minor. But... your post seems really entitled and dismissive to me. You get that there are PFs where real people in the actual world who innocently paid their 10 bucks and went to work out have had a loud noise and a flashing light single them out for ridicule, right? But.. they'll be just fine? This experience was only "poking fun at them"? And you know that's how they feel about it how exactly? Because you say so? And while you're at it, you'll also give them a dismissive nickname and mock the idea that maybe this is a bad idea?

    Here's an idea --- re-read what you wrote, substituting an offensive term for some other group for "lunks" and "bros" and see how it sounds to you. It's not a good look.

    So being a lunk or a bro, which is entirely a choice based upon one’s behavior, is the same as being a racial or ethnic minority, handicapped, homosexual, etc? No, just stop with this, seriously, you are marginalizing real discrimination and offensiveness.

    That's not at all how I read what that poster was saying.

    You seem to be arguing under the assumption that other gyms are in fact full of people who choose to be lunks, so poking fun at said lunks is not that bad.

    What I see posters here being offended by is that PF ads insinuated that other gyms are full of lunks (over-muscled stupid barely verbal bros who will scare you and judge you) and that is insulting and unfair to the real people at those gyms who are 99% of the time not at all like that. It's stereotyping people who go to other gyms in an insulting light, very much like other groups of people are stereotyped in an insulting and not accurate way. Of course there are degrees of the seriousness to stereotyping, and some stereotypes are more harmful and dangerous than others. But stereotyping people who workout at other gyms inaccurately as lunks, and then using the fear/distaste for lunks as a reason to go to PF is kind of *kitten*, don't you think? While it might differ in degree from other stereotypes, it's the same idea. I'm going to convince you that all people in this group have this negative trait and scare you into believing my group is better/safer/cleaner etc.


    I was aware of these PF commercials years before I ever joined one and I didn’t associate any of the lunks’ behavior with myself because I didn’t engage in any of it, even though I was a member of a “judgmental gym”.

    My takeaway from the commercials is that other gyms tend to tolerate lunkish behavior while PF doesn’t, not that every single person who belongs to a gym not operated by PF is a lunk.
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,563 Member
    I have to ask - what's the problem with big water containers? I've never noticed anyone carrying around a big jug of water, but I wouldn't have paid any attention before this thread. I had no idea it was a thing.
  • clicketykeys
    clicketykeys Posts: 6,589 Member
    I always thought that they were using "lunk" to mean "show-off." I do think the ad with the women is a better example of that; calling it slut-shaming is a bit of a stretch, as the ad clearly frames their preening behavior in a negative light. The ad with the man does seem to equate physical fitness and training style with stupidity.

    It seems reasonable to me that people who see themselves as in poor physical condition might THINK they will feel uncomfortable at a gym where people are focused on showing off and one-upping others. Ads like these play on their fears of inadequacy.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    mph323 wrote: »
    I have to ask - what's the problem with big water containers? I've never noticed anyone carrying around a big jug of water, but I wouldn't have paid any attention before this thread. I had no idea it was a thing.

    It's one of PF's stereotypical "lunk" traits. You'll rarely ever see it anywhere but in their advertisements - just as you'll rarely ever see people (in any gym) slamming/throwing weights around, screaming at the top of their lungs, preening and calling each other "hottie" in the locker room, or getting in people's face while rubbing a towel back and forth through their groin. Those are all made up PF things intended to stereotype and ridicule people who are in good shape.

    See, my gym doesn't even have a locker room. Just 5 big, single use bathrooms with showers. No sharing at all.

  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    clicketykeys wrote: »
    It seems reasonable to me that people who see themselves as in poor physical condition might THINK they will feel uncomfortable at a gym where people are focused on showing off and one-upping others. Ads like these play on their fears of inadequacy.

    Suggesting that people who go to other gyms are likely to be into showing off and one-upping others and preening is hardly reasonable, and so I think this supports the idea that the ads are bad and spread misinformation that encourages people to think negatively about other gyms and the people who go there.

    It's also simply false to claim that PF is screening out people who preen or try to one-up others or show off. Nothing in their policies would do that.

    The "sluts must be shamed" thing was about the "no revealing clothes" policy, not the ads. When running outside in the summer on hotter days, I frequently see people in just sports bras as a top (often women running much faster than me). Guess PF would say that makes running outside intimidating and full of preening airheads, sigh.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    ultra_violets wrote: »
    No one can intimidate you without your consent. I'm there for the cardio. I couldn't give half a damn that some dude is grunting or dropping weights or that some dim bulb is strutting around in lycra looking for attention. I pay my money and I do my thing. That said, I was tempted by PF because it's inexpensive, but the jaw-dropping in your face F.U. of having candy jars on the front desk and pizza and bagels in the lobby was a definite dealbreaker. Some people are diabetic. Some people are food addicts. That sh isn't funny.
    That's the only reason I ever would consider signing up. Free pizza and bagels! :drinker:
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    ultra_violets wrote: »
    No one can intimidate you without your consent. I'm there for the cardio. I couldn't give half a damn that some dude is grunting or dropping weights or that some dim bulb is strutting around in lycra looking for attention. I pay my money and I do my thing. That said, I was tempted by PF because it's inexpensive, but the jaw-dropping in your face F.U. of having candy jars on the front desk and pizza and bagels in the lobby was a definite dealbreaker. Some people are diabetic. Some people are food addicts. That sh isn't funny.
    That's the only reason I ever would consider signing up. Free pizza and bagels! :drinker:

    I dunno. Given what I pay at Anytime, the $10 a month is pretty attractive even without the free food.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Like I said upthread, that it might work with a particular target audience doesn't make it right. I'm not criticizing it because it doesn't work, I'm criticizing it because I think it's wrong, and they should be criticized for it.
  • jeanybughargrett
    jeanybughargrett Posts: 1 Member
    I like Planet fitness- I appreciate any encouragement to move and stretch and exercise- and affordable for anyone-one in my neighborhood is nice clean and many people from all walks of life use it- nice to see a community coming together to improve health- I use it- and when nice out I don’t use it- only due to prefer outdoor exercise- only thing is I wish had more open floor space for just body weight exercise
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    edited November 2018
    I think I'm going to sign up at PF. I lift regular free weights at home. But if I didn't i could get by with dumbbells. I like using barbells for squats and deadlifts but I would be ok using dumbbells. Plus I could use the smith machine for hip thrusts. I only want the PF membership through the winter so I can use the treadmills when it's snowy and icy out. I've been really bummed out all week because i haven't been able to run at all, and I won't risk running and slipping on ice. The marketing is stupid and the rules are stupid and all that, but I literally only need it for the treadmills, and it's cheap, and it's 5 minutes from my office, so there's that.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    There's a workout room in my office building that I used before I joined my gym that offers me everything PF could, and which requires only a one time fee, so if you work here long it's way cheaper than PF (I think I have now paid under 40 cents per month for it), but as a source of a treadmill in the winter, if it happens to be convenient, I think PF could be perfect.
  • comptonelizabeth
    comptonelizabeth Posts: 1,701 Member
    urloved33 wrote: »
    to poo poo the advertisements of pf is to deny that oppressive culture that was - initially - born and bred in gyms. even w signs "no women allowed" - and that is really very offensive to women in general. to not want to admit that gyms all over the world are fighting to change the culture in gyms...makes me want to ask you are you a cave man in denial or just live under a rock?

    I get what you're saying but I guess the point is that it should be possible to aim for gyms to be less intimidating, without stereotyping other groups of gym users
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