GNC Ads Mock the Self-Esteem Movement

A great new ad campaign designed by Carmichael Lynch for GNC Holdings — the huge health-products retailer — takes aim at the grotesque self-esteem movement that has, since the 1980s, made narcissism the new normal.

We at the low end of the self-esteem spectrum tend to be baffled by all this unmerited self-adoration and by a culture in which every player gets a trophy just for being there — while we refuse to accept even the smallest compliments, much less take credit for our own achievements. Were one of us to singlehandedly end world hunger, we’d look around blankly when offered a Nobel Prize and say, “No way.”

Addressing an audience that is huge but is definitely not us, this ad campaign — titled “Beat Average,” based on the notion that in a narcissistic society, average is the new good — makes hilarious fun of those on the sky-high end of the self-esteem spectrum whose self-adoration makes them lazily complacent: in this case, about their health. Various scenes depict people making excuses for not having made healthy lifestyle choices: One drop of rain sends a woman racing off the sports field, for instance.

“Average has memory issues,” the narrator says mockingly as people in cars and in workplaces smack themselves on the forehead and say, “Oops! I forgot to work out!”

We with low self-esteem don’t need to worry about this particular mindgame. But it’s funny to see an expensive ad campaign aimed at those self-lovers who do.


Comments

GNC Ads Mock the Self-Esteem Movement — 2 Comments

  1. That’s an amazing instantaneous, I set up your weblog summon looking used for a coupled background and got here at this point. I couldn’t discern a lot more in a row, as a result it was good to find this website.

  2. agapimenoi mou ma o George Bush antiprosopevi aplotya tous amerikanous etsi eine oloi kai etsi ton theloun kiafton. Asta na pane kai mh xeirotera na leme emeis pou zoume edo sto America me tetio arxigo. Pantos makari na mou erthete kai tha sas exo na katheste mono kai na zisete esto kai mia mera ton amerikano kai tin nootropia tou. Kala namaste oloi emeis oi alloi laoi pou alaxame aftin tin xora kai ta matia tous se osous epsaxnan to fos vevea. Perimeno fonitiko klipaki diko sas apo tin ekmpompi sas pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>