This year, get serious: Don’t just have more dinner parties—throw an orgy. Don’t just join a gym—join a cult.
That’s the essence of a new ad campaign by luxury fitness company Equinox, whose “Commit to Something” ads rolled out Jan. 4. The campaign sells a bizarrely aggressive lifestyle for those looking to take their life choices to new extremes.
The ads show Equinox’s commitment to, well, commitment, and criticize the “modern-day aversion to loyalty” according to a press release.
Shot by famed fashion photographer Steven Klein, the ads feature rippled abs meeting in a wooded clearing, covered in $100 bills, and literally piled on top of each other.
The gym caters to urban high-achievers: A membership at a downtown New York location can set you back at least $230 a month, and in 2015, two invite-only locations cost $26,000 a year. Campaigns over the years have targeted everyone from young finance types to new moms and still-got-it seniors.
With “Commit to something,” Equinox continues its relationship with ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, which oversaw its last campaign: “Equinox made me do it.”
Those ads were premised on the idea that too much confidence could have unintended consequences. They sold an extreme approach to life, for impulsive job-quitters, head-shavers, and kleptomaniacs.
But it’s all a big step up from Equinox’s 2013 campaign. Shot by photographer Terry Richardson, it was criticized for its hyper-sexualized, demeaning portrayal of women.
