Kaleidoscope

Most of us dread standing on the scale and looking at how many pounds we’ve gained after that hearty thanksgiving turkey dinner over the weekend. Depending on what you see when you stand on the scale, those numbers may come to haunt you for the rest of the day, or even perhaps week.  At this point, you really have three choices: 1. Pray that the scale has severely malfunctioned and return your scale to your local retailer immediately – demanding a full refund (it’s the machine’s fault, of course!), 2. Go in to complete denial and pretend that those extra five pounds were part of a bad dream, or 3. Start watching your diet and start hitting the gym.

But many of us may choose to not live our lives based on a number that a small, flat, square-shaped machine displays to us. This may be unavoidable however, if  your a frequent bus-taker in Amsterdam. 

In order to promote its fitness services, Fitness First has created the first-ever, bus stop scale. As long as you sit on the bench at the stop, your weight is displayed in large, clear, red, digital letters for the world to see. Fitness First realizes the power that the scale has over many people, and has decided to take advantage of this mechanism to encourage the weight-conscious public to join their gym.

Although this ad is innovative and would probably create local buzz, I do have to question the accuracy of this bus stop scale. Assuming that Fitness First has not tweaked the scale to over-calculate our weight, many of us like to travel with purses (if you are a girl), or backpacks, and other personal belongings. You can see in the picture above that the lady has also placed her purse on the bench beside her (who knows, maybe she’s carrying a set of dumbells in there)! As well, our heavy coats during the winter time may add significant poundage to our overall scale reading. Definitely something to keep in mind.

Regardless, this ad is creative and eye-catching.

The question is, would you have the courage to sit on the Fitness First bus stop bench? Or would you prefer to stand while you wait for your bus?

Tags: No Comments