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Joel Warner ENG294-Gender and Sexuality in American Cinema November 29, 2007
The Anti-Gym Commercials: Shock Chauvinism or Subversive Feminist Call to Arms?
It would be easy to write off recent commercials by the Anti-Gym, the Denver-based health and vanity lifestyle boutique, as grotesque, chauvinistic and infantile shock publicity. This particular establishment is known for its radical media-manipulation techniques, from hiring faux “protesters” to launching a nationwide child obesity campaign of questionable authenticity. Historical precedent for such extremist public relations campaigns is long established, dating back to Bartolomé de las Casas’ 1552 publication, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias. But upon closer inspection, these advertisements hold much deeper meaning: A subversive post-modern reversal of expectations that calls into question the very ideals upon which the Anti-Gym – and modern society’s pathological body-image obsessions – are ostensibly founded.
Take, for example, the Anti-Gym commercial simplistically titled “Hottie”:
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