The advertisement above is dirty, filthy, grimy; it wreaks of hard work, sweat and perspiration, and days where the only thing the people wearing this shoe looked forward to was sitting at a desk listening to the rantings of a customer in Canada who couldn't find out how to plug in their microwave over a headset that doesn't quite fit sipping coffee that is three hours too old. Until they could finally escape their reality and find a dark, wooded trail where for a brief instant in their life they felt like wild, uncivil beasts as their legs pumped furiously back and forth to cover that last 200 yards of hill.
But those people are few and far between. Most people jog, bike, row, or sprint to stay in shape, to ward off high cholesterol and pounds of extra belly fat that has been directly linked to high incidences of heart disease, the number 1 killer in the civilized 1st World. An advertisement is meant to solicit a buyer's response from those that it targets in order to drive up the bottom line, so that companies can make money and promise a high return on investment to their stock holders.
Pearl Izumi doesn't do this. They alienate their consumer base by making it seem that most of them aren't serious about running. The "wearenotjoggers" website is a collage of negativity towards people who spend an hour a day on treadmills trying to look like Brad Pitt or Christian Bale, the very people that Pearl Izumi should be appealing to. Perhaps they are trying to motivate the treadmillers into becoming more extreme about their sport, to learn more brand recognition and to take pride in their sports wear, but as a runner, I do not see any success in this tactic.
The story on the advertisement is one of melancholic discovery. The kind of people who should wear these shoes are the ones that happen upon grizzly crime scenes where serial killers dump their victims. Perhaps the serial killers themselves wear these shoes: that is how truly extreme these shoes are. Perhaps the campaign should be "we are not crimes of passion," but instead they are cold, calculated savages that take everything to the ultimate.
I'm a little insulted by this ad. I run on a treadmill, usually 5-10 miles a day, and I listen to my iPod and watch ESPN because where I live is ugly and traffic riddled. There are few paths to speak of, and those paths are very short and journey to streets packed with cars steered by horrible drivers and the anarchy of the DC metro area. I can't run around in a small circle and pretend I am hardcore. So what is it that Pearl Izumi is trying to tell me? Am I less of a man because I don't live in Montana where running trails stretch for ten or twenty miles? Am I less of a man because I don't run during the dead of winter when black ice covers the pavement and temperatures reach below zero? Perhaps the people wearing these Gortex Pearl Izumi tops are not real runners because real runners would run naked over the arctic tundra barefoot--Now that is extreme running.
I received a very strong emotional response the first time I read the ad and a further emotional response from reading the pages of the website. The campaign appeals to one of my most intense human emotions-disgust. I am disgusted that I never run through three feet of snow or traverse chaotic mudslides on my way through a 5k. I can only imagine what types of emotions they stirred up in the viewing public. Pathos is by far the strongest of the three elements of persuasive writing in this campaign, though ethos is strongly represented. They are, after all, a sporting goods company specializing in extreme outdoor sports. They certainly know what type of person makes the ultimate Pearl Izumi consumer. I doubt I received the message that Pearl Izumi hoped I would receive from their campaign, but I have to admit that at least they got me thinking about upping my running intervals and finding a group of elementary school children to leave my footprints on in the near future.
Despite the ad campaign's misgivings, it is still much more effective than the Reebok campaign. While most people really are casual exercisers, and while most of us prefer to sit on the couch and watch fictional runners find dead bodies on CSI rather than actually stumbling upon a lime pit in the middle of the Appalachians, none of us actually want to be that guy that is happy with mediocrity. We want to be the person that doesn't let a little physical pain or mental anguish from long, intense workouts stop us from performing at our peak. We aspire to be billionaires, to date supermodels, and to be the center of attention. With that in mind, Reebok is telling us to be happy with being nobodies, while Pearl Izumi is telling us to "stop eating an entire pizza on a Friday night all alone while watching reruns of One Tree Hill, get up and lace on a pair of extreme running shoes, and go solve a murder mystery by yourself, Superhero."
Sophisticated and witty analysis worthy of appearing in a newspaper column!
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