CHEATING

 

There are controversial ads and then there are really, really controversial ads.  This cheating ad falls into the latter category.  The comical ad is a poor attempt to encourage men to get to the gym and workout.  At first, I thought the ad was a joke.  It turns out, however, that this ad which encourages men to cheat on their girlfriends rather than their workouts was actually posted in gyms throughout Germany.

The ad is for Reebok, although the sponsor company of the ad is not made clear in the ad itself (although similar Reebok posters do have their name and logo).  One can imagine Reebok is in fact happy about that.  Tan/brown and white are not even the colors of Reebok which makes it hard to identify the ad as Reebok.  The colors do not seem particularly appealing to me, but the colors might be more appealing to a German audience where clay court tennis is popular.  The bold white capital letters contrasted with the tan/brown background certainly does get the message across.  And the way the brown almost feels like sand as it blends into the white letters gives a slight feel of a workout.

The ad is obviously tongue and cheek.  However, the ad is not only an assault on fidelity, but it also can be seen as an attack on women.  The ad was quickly pulled in Germany.  Germans are far more sexually liberated than Americans so it is possible that Reebok initially thought that the ad would not be that offensive.

I think that where Reebok really went wrong was the sexism and the misogyny of the ad.  Had the ad read cheat on your significant other rather than your girlfriend maybe Reebok could have got away with the ad.  Women may find  the misogyny of the ad far more distressing than the anti-monogamy message of the ad.