October 31, 2009
To the barricades
Blogging is light because I have a million and one things to do, and I am stressed. Maybe there will be a post tomorrow about how people might think about “democracy”, and just what that might be. Maybe, if I can finally sort-out exactly what the hell I think is wrong with Leo Strauss’ critique of historicism…
Today, however, I want to call you all to the barricades (of teh internets). Several months ago I asked readers to submit complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority regarding an advertising campaign by Maximuscle Protein. The ASA upheld the complaints made against Maximuscle, banned the company from repeating such an advertising campaign, and accordingly Maximuscle adverts are now far more toned-down (no pun intended). We’ll never know whether it was the campaign emanating from this blog that made the difference, but I like to believe it was.
In that spirit of optimism, I’m going to ask everyone to submit complaints about another advertising campaign, this time by Sketchers Shoes. The campaign claims that Sketcher’s “Shape-up” shoes can “Promote Weight Loss, Tone Muscle, Improve Posture”. Indeed, these incredible shoes are allegedly so good that they allow you to “get in shape without setting foot in a gym”.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a PDF with the advertising claims, and then attempts to vaguely justify them.
Now I’ll admit that it’s probably possible that these shoes do tone muscle, and maybe even to a noticeable and significant extent. But that they burn a significant number of calories to the point where they can generate weight-loss, and to such an extent that one can get in shape without “setting foot in a gym”, i.e. doing any actual physically demanding exercise? I find that very hard to believe.
Obviously, I’m no expert on physical exercise. But from my limited knowledge, weight-loss occurs from burning more calories than are consumed. I find it very unlikely that a pair of shoes can cause a person to burn sufficient calories that this translates into meaningful weight loss (meaningful being “getting in shape without stepping foot in a gym”).
Of course, I could be totally wrong. These shoes could be truly revolutionary. But if they are not, then this advert shouldn’t be allowed, insofar as it misleads consumers into thinking that Sketchers shoes can promote weight-loss on a level comparable to conventional regular physical exercise.
So I’m going to ask you to join me in complaining to the ASA (via this form) along the following lines: ask the ASA to find out whether Sketchers’ claims about weight-loss and calorie-burning can be backed up by actual scientific evidence, to the extent that wearing such shoes can genuinely replace conventional physical exercise; if Sketchers’ shoes can’t do that, ask the ASA to ban the advert on the grounds that it is unacceptably misleading.
You may be wondering why I care about this. Well, I don’t have anything against Sketchers specifically. And I don’t really care if silly people buy these shoes thinking believing they’ll get thin. What bothers me is the world of advertising and marketing more generally.
We live in an age of constant bullshit, where we are told and sold lies on a daily basis. Modern consumerism largely rests upon selling people rubbish that they don’t need, on the back of false and exaggerated claims which are designed to inculcate desires as much as to satisfy them.
I see two things as broadly resulting from this. One is the ever-growing predominance of quick-fix culture; don’t go to a gym and put in hours of hard, boring exercise, or deny yourself nice-tasting food so as to lose weight – just get a pair of shoes that burn that fat for you! (Except of course, they probably don’t). For a whole host of reasons, I really dislike quick-fix culture. The other resuly is a hollowing-out of language as the mundane and trivial is described in terms that should be reserved for the meaningful and important – resulting in the debasement of values as distinctions between quality and trash are eroded away. These phenomena go beyond marketing and advertising, of course – but they have a lot to do with the growth of aggressive consumerism and the extent to which politics and wider culture increasingly emulated marketting. People may say the Bill Hicks sketch is cliched, but I like it.
So for me, complaining about Sketchers to the ASA is my own, small, personal resistance to the tide of inane, debasing, bullshit which informs so much of what is wrong with modern culture and society. Feel free to add your own insignificant weight to mine.
Peter said,
November 1, 2009 at 1:58 am
“Now I’ll admit that it’s probably possible that these shoes do tone muscle, and maybe even to a noticeable and significant extent. But that they burn a significant number of calories to the point where they can generate weight-loss, and to such an extent that one can get in shape without “setting foot in a gym”, i.e. doing any actual physically demanding exercise? I find that very hard to believe.”
- It’s not possible for these shoes to “tone” muscle, because toning is a bullshit concept made up by crap PTs who don’t want to scare women away from the weights room. There is no toning. There are only bigger muscles and stronger muscles. A fortiori, these shoes do not tone muscles.