Advertising Athletic Apparel and the Obese

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Athletic Apparel: Detriment to the Obese?

Giant, toned arms, washboard abs, and ripped legs—these attributes are all too common in commercials for athletic apparel. Outfitters such as Nike, Adidas, Converse, Asics, and Under Armour display elite athletes in many of their commercials. Unlike some food, clothing, and car, among others, commercials, they are never directed toward the obese. Even fast-food companies are recognizing that the U.S. has dominated other countries in a statistic that it should not be proud of—the percentage of obese people living within our borders.

Who is to blame for this? No one party can shoulder the bulk of the blame because it belongs to a large number of people. But the problem now is not to place blame, it is to help these people get in shape—not just to look good—so that they can live longer, happier lives as well. As mentioned earlier, fast-food companies, who are partially at fault, have begun to put out healthier food and advertised it more in an attempt to not only avoid lawsuits, but to help the overweight people who realize that they need to make a change.

Athletic apparel is one business that could really make a push, through advertising strategies, to show that exercise represents a titanic percentage of what needs to be done to lose weight. They could have a line of commercials like Subway did with Jared, showing a true story about someone who loses massive amounts of fat by using their product. A commercial by Nike or Adidas displaying an obese person working out is hard to come by.

A few years ago Miami Heat Guard Dwayne Wade signed a deal with Converse. Obviously he has appeared in a number of their commercials since then, partially due to his great success so early in his pro...

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.... The athletic apparel commercials, if directed at the country’s overweight people, could make a big push toward removing the United States from the title of “fattest country in the world”, as well as saving the lives of, not only Americans, but everyone in the world who is clinically obese and faces so many health risks.

Works Cited

"Two Decades of Annual Medical Examinations in Japanese Obese Children." International Journal of Obesity. 3 June 1997. npg. 26 Oct. 2006 .

"One Billion People Overweight." Breitbart.Com. 2005. 25 Oct. 2006 .

"Overweight Prevalence." National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). 6 Oct. 2006. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES. 25 Oct. 2006 .

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