P E R S P E C T I V E : M e d i a C i r c u s
Sell-Your-Soul Cycle
The SoulCycle outlet in Manhattan’s Financial District.
BY ED SIKOV
“If gyms sell people on
the idea that a gym affi
liation is part of their
identity, gyms can’t
really be surprised when people quit
because they no longer identify.”
This is my favorite sentence in a
terrifi c commentary in The Atlantic
on the Equinox-SoulCycle controversy
, a self-infl icted wound caused
and borne by the companies’ owner,
Stephen M. Ross, whose support of
Rump took the form of a $250,000
per person benefi t for the Rump campaign
in the Hamptons last weekend.
Written by James Hamblin, MD, the
short essay argues that Equinox and
SoulCycle essentially brought the
boycott on themselves because the
gyms chose to sell an ethos, not just
a membership: “If there is a trend in
corporate accountability and scrutiny
from consumers, it is also, poetically,
exactly what brands such as SoulCycle
and Equinox ask for. The companies
sell their workouts as much more
than just a workout. They sell a lifestyle,
an identity — one of virtue and
character and dedication.”
In other words, you’re not just buying
the ability to do cardio for an hour
when you join a gym, you’re buying a
way of life, one that consists of constant
betterment and self-realization
on the road to physical and moral
perfection. Of course, the self you’re
attempting to realize has perfectly
chiseled abs and superguns requiring
hours and hours of hard, sweaty
work, making the entire project virtually
impossible for anyone who has,
SOULCYCLE
say, a job or is over the age of 35.
Hamblin continues: “Equinox uses
the slogan ‘Commit to something,’
which was developed by the advertising
agency Wieden + Kennedy. Last
year, the agency’s creative director told
Adweek that the goal of the campaign
was to tell ‘stories revolving around
real people. So we started asking,
“Who best embodies commitment in
a world where commitment is often
lacking?”… You’ve got outnumbered
pro-bono lawyers. Doctors facing insurmountable
odds. Journalists in
the era of “fake news.” Those fi ghting
for gender and sexual equality.’”
Rather snidely, Hamblin goes on,
“These dedicated professionals became
the faces on the billboards for
the gym — fi tness models dressed as
people who are committed to serious
and consequential causes. Causes
that are barely even tangential to exercising.
The sales pitch is a bigger
picture of character and ambition:
This is an Equinox member, and if
you join, you can be that person.”
I’m particularly fond of “fi tness
models dressed as people who are
committed to serious and consequential
causes.”
And in a brilliant closing takedown,
Hamblin writes, “In its statement on
Instagram this week, Equinox said,
‘No company profi ts are used to fund
politicians. In fact, we are committed
to all our members and the communities
we live in.’ SoulCycle issued a
similar statement about how it does
not engage in politics. Neither company
mentioned Trump’s policies — or
objected to his dehumanizing large
groups of people or degrading the basic
norms of American democracy.
For these morally infused lifestyle
brands, this could be an opportunity
to, you know, commit to something.”
Hot damn, Hamblin! You really
nailed ‘em!
Jeffery Epstein killed himself.
Why?
Because he ruined his own life and
damaged the lives of others by sextraffi
cking underage girls. Simple,
right?
Wrong!
According to Rump, the Clintons
killed him. Or maybe it was Rump
himself. As attorney Danny Cevallos,
writing in the Los Angeles Times, put
it in an op-ed, some people point the
fi nger at Rump, while other paranoiacs…
well, I’ll let Cevalllos explain:
“One far-fetched theory substitutes
the Clintons for Trump as the shadowy
powers who ordered a hit on
Epstein. Technically, however, this
theory can no longer be dismissed as
‘fringe,’ because it has been ratifi ed
by a very offi cial fi gure: the president.
On Saturday, as speculation ran rampant,
Trump retweeted a post from
the comedian Terrence Williams, who
wrote ‘Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE
WATCH? Yeah right! How does
that happen #JefferyEpstein had information
on Bill Clinton & now he’s
dead.’ Trump’s tweets are offi cial
statements of the White House, which
means that this fringe theory is no
longer ‘fringe.’”
As Cevallos notes, one little problem
with both inane theories is that “Epstein
was not on suicide watch when
he died, and even if he had been the
outcome might have been the same.
A study by the US Marshals Service
found that about eight percent of
suicides in correctional facilities occurred
even though an inmate was
on suicide watch. According to the
report, the vast majority of suicides
(more than 90 percent) are hangings,
with the second most common being
drug overdoses.”
Cevallos also points out the most
obvious reason Epstein had no need
for a fi nal push off the planet: “One
day he was living on his own private
island; the next he was in a concrete
box,” meaning a jail cell. If I were Jeffery
Epstein, I’d have killed myself,
too. And I don’t even know Rump or
Clinton. Or Humbert Humbert, for
that matter.
Follow @EdSikov on Twitter and Facebook
.
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