Gymshark is a United Kingdom-based athletic apparel company that has blown up globally in recent years. Gymshark was founded in 2012 by Ben Francis and his friends while they were still high school students (Gymshark, 2019). Their unique designs, affordable prices, and influencer partnerships have brought a lot of attention to the company. While most of the attention Gymshark has received has been positive, a campaign they launched in 2017 to advertise their “Flex” apparel to women received a lot of negative attention, especially on social media. 

Gymshark launched a video advertisement for their “Flex Effect” campaign featuring one of their Gymshark female athletes, Karina Elle. The advertisement showed Elle wearing the Flex leggings and matching sports bra. She was strutting down the street, as men watched, with jaws dropped and made gestures while responding to her appearance. Women in the commercial stared at her and covered their boyfriend’s eyes. 

The “Flex Effect” campaign video received a lot of negative feedback from the audience. Some of the feedback they received for the ad on social media included comments on Instagram that the ad is “disgusting”, they are “disappointed”, that women would “rather not be cat called”. On Reddit, the advertisement was called “desperate” and “cringey”. Needless to say, people were offended by this advertisement. 

This campaign was memorable, but not in a positive way. I have a few problems with the “Flex Effect” ad campaign video myself. When they describe the campaign for the Flex collection on the Gymshark website, they make the claim that essentially when you wear clothing from this line you will want to Flex (Gymshark, 2017). It seems likely that through the advertisement they were trying to show that this line of clothing will make women feel confident. Rather, the advertisement sent the message that women seek validation in their appearance from men. It sent the message that women want to put on clothing that will help them show off and receive attention from men. It seems to me that the advertisement is encouraging cat calling and objectification, as the woman is responding positively to the behavior of the men. The message aside, the product Gymshark is advertising is athletic apparel. In this advertisement, they do not showcase how the apparel supports physical activity or the ability of the woman to perform in the apparel. Rather it sends the message that what is important, is how you look in the apparel. Of course, women want to look and feel good in what they wear when being active. Though, what female athletes want to know is if the athletic apparel will support their ability to perform athletically, not what men will think of how they look in the apparel. 

While Gymshark may have intended to send a different message with the campaign, I think they could have done a much better job showcasing the Flex apparel line in this advertisement. An advertisement that showcased the athlete’s ability to perform athletically in the apparel would have received better feedback. Women would have responded better to an advertisement showing a strong woman working hard in the clothing, and the unique design of the apparel would have spoken for itself. 

Here is a link to the video advertisement: 

https://www.gymshark.com/blogs/news/the-flex-effect

Instagram: 

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Reddit:

New Gymshark advert is the most desperate and cringy thing ever from xxfitness

References:

Gymshark. (2019). About Us. Retrieved from https://www.gymshark.com/pages/about-us

Gymshark. (2017). Vision: The Flex Effect. Retrieved from https://www.gymshark.com/blogs/news/the-flex-effect 

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