(This post, errr, rant, is in response to a recent Lululemon marketing campaign. I personally have no feelings toward Lululemon specifically (I don’t shop there because I can’t afford it, if I could, maybe I would), it’s the message I am addressing. It could have been promoted by any company and I would still feel the same way.)
I hate the word “mediocrity;” it purely exists to make others feel bad about themselves (because mediocre, like “average” and “boring” are used as insults). And it’s always used by those who feel they have achieved some kind of greatness that the rest of us are lacking and so they make it their mission to “motivate” us toward improvement. Is the world we live in really so boring to you that you have to elevate it to your standards? I don’t buy it and I won’t buy your product either.
A word I do like? Debauchery, oh yeah, I like how it rolls off the tongue. Please don’t look it up in the dictionary though, it’s very “unyogic.”
I know it’s cliché, but you’d think that if a “yoga company” wanted to inspire the masses out of “mediocrity,” they’d use Gandhi to do it, not Ayn Rand for god’s sakes; although I would be slightly offended if Lululemon did use Gandhi to sell a $90 pair of crotch-smoothing yoga pants. At least Ayn Rand is congruent.
From Lululemon’s blog:
elevating the world from mediocrity to greatness
You might be wondering why a company that makes yoga clothing has chosen a legendary literary character’s name to adorn the side of our bags. lululemon’s founder, Chip Wilson, first read this book when he was eighteen years old working away from home. Only later, looking back, did he realize the impact the book’s ideology had on his quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness (it is not coincidental that this is lululemon’s company vision).
Oh hail the great Chip, what would we do without you? Until Lululemon solved all my flat yoga butt woes, I was living in bleak, flat-bum mediocre misery! And now that I’ve bought your butt-boosting pants I’m too broke to donate to my favourite charity to ease the real misery of others.
No thank you, I will keep my mediocre and baggy (and therefore no camel toe) second-hand pants for yoga practice. They’re made of forest green velour! Very trendy, let me tell you.
Besides, who are you to decide what’s mediocre? I’m pretty sure it’s a subjective position. Am I mediocre because I wear non-yoga clothes to yoga class? Am I mediocre because I don’t go on expensive yoga retreats decked out in my latest $125 malas? Are the guys who’d rather get together to drink beer and watch the game instead of getting their bliss on mediocre?
Our bags are visual reminders for ourselves to live a life we love and conquer the epidemic of mediocrity. We all have a John Galt inside of us, cheering us on. How are we going to live lives we love?
I’m all for self-improvement and not letting fear stop you from the life you truly want (because you are just so grateful to be alive, not because you have feelings of inadequacy), but I don’t need your stupid shopping bag to remind me of it.
Ooooo, it’s the calling it an epidemic that really drives me bonkers!!!! I think that’s a bit much. And they try to make it sound like some noble act, when all they’re really driven by is getting your money. I really wish yoga could find its way out of this brand of navel-gazing self-improvement. What happened to self-acceptance? Non lulu-improved butts and all?
