“A 12 week
program that will change your body for the rest of your life!” That’s the claim
celebrity personal trainer Michelle Bridges makes when selling her 12 week body
transformation program.
For those who
live under a rock, Michelle Bridges is the personal trainer who shot to fame
through her involvement in Channel 10’s The Biggest Loser program.
She must be
good, and the program must work, because over 258,000 people like Michelle
Bridges on Facebook! 258,000 people can’t be wrong! Or can they? She certainly has her critics, and her claim that her program is tailored to those trying to
lose 50kgs as well as fitness fanatics is a little hard to believe.
At this point I
must point out that I have nothing against Michelle Bridges and her program, it
may work, it may not. But what makes it so popular has nothing to do with any
scientifically proven formula, it is because it has been designed by Michelle
Bridges, that famous person we seen on TV all the time helping obese people
lose weight!
This is
a perfect example of the prevailing celebrity culture in society. The popularizing
of certain people who have certain attributes that society deem exceptional.
This has instilled itself into many disciplines of life from the famed in the medical profession to the way that we read and
interpret politicians (Marshall 2010: 498).
This has changed who we
listen to and why. But, are we receiving the right message?
References:
Marshall, D 2010, ‘The Specular Economy’, Symposium: Celebrity around the World, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 498-502
Top post, mate. This is pretty much the case with every product that has celebrity endorsement. Think of all those pro-active ads with the countless celebrity faces trying to spruik you what is essentially soap and fragrance. The celebrity endorsement is obviously just for money and yet we still fall for it time and time again.
ReplyDeleteHi Joel, I really like your blog post on celebrities and think that you raise some very interesting arguments. I like that you are critical towards Michelle Bridges and don't just assume that because she is popular her program works. I completely agree that her program has become very popular because she is a celebrity and not because of the content of the training program. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that Michelle Bridges is on television could be just as much a hindrance as an advantage. There are those that are immediately going to dismiss her claims due to the fact that she is nothing more than a celebrity but the upside of her being on television can also be that for a program like the biggest loser she would have had to endure an intense audition process to make sure that once she was put out there into the spotlight that anything she did on the show (since there are real peoples lives at stake) was above reproach so celebrity really can be a double edged sword.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post is excellent. The structure is clean, the language is scholarly and eloquent and the content is both engaging and informative. Michelle Bridges is a really pertinent example of how someone's celebrity status can instill complete confidence in their professional abilities. Your references are clear and the links and photos made it a lot more engaging. Even the way the paragraphs are formatted make the post flow well, rather than lines breaking where ideas don't. Enjoyed it very much.
ReplyDeleteHi Joel, I think you have managed to connect celebrity endorsement to audience consumption really well. I know that if a regular Personal Trainer told me I could lose X amount in 12 weeks I would be a little sceptical, but for some reason, if it was Michelle Bridges I would be more inclined to believe her – probably because she has been on TV and I’ve seen how she pushes people. It really makes you think about who we are listening to and why, that is for sure.
ReplyDeleteGood structure and use of references, but I think your post asks more questions than it answers. You address an issue which could have been cross argued with other celebrities in the same boat, like Mark Preston from Masterchef etc. to give it more validity. At any rate, I enjoyed your post and you keep an easy to read conversational tone throughout.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your post about Michelle Bridges weight loss program. I feel like product endorsement is getting drastically out of hand. People will go out and spend money on products just because their favourite celebrity has claimed to have used it. When the program was first launched, one or two of my Facebook friends befriended Michelle's facebook page, by the next week, nearly all teh girls i was friends with had joined the page.
ReplyDeleteOverall, great post, well done.