Jul. 29: Why Do All Those Ad Campaigns Try To Label Us As Either/Or Runners? I'm Neither.
LAST SUNDAY I RAN 20 MILES AT 5:30 PACE. On Wednesday, I did 20 x 400 meters in
63 seconds. Friday I discovered three dead bodies while running a killer
fartlek workout through an urban wasteland.
I trust you don't believe a word of this. You certainly shouldn't.
So would you believe that the only thing I did all week was to run easy? I hope not.
My life and running don't fit either the new Pearl Izumi ad campaign ("Ever notice how it's always runners who find dead bodies?") or the current Reebok campaign ("Run easy."). My life and running aren't either/or, black/white, or good/evil. Rather, I run in a gray zone that melds many shades of running. And I despise all campaigns that attempt to force us into runner/jogger camps, or any other camps for that matter.
My actual running last week: a 13-miler with several 2:50 marathoners who dumped my sorry butt after 12 miles; a 60-minute run-walk with my wife; hot, humid noontime interval 800s with two colleagues who won't see my age-group for more than 20 years; and several relaxed 40-minute swims in our Community Pool. I enjoyed them all.
I also did an interview with a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who wanted to know what I thought about the "slowing down" of marathoning in the U.S. First, I pointed out that there's a concurrent "speeding up," witness some folks named Kastor, Hall, Keflezighi and co. But the reporter's point is irrefutable, and I didn't argue. Average marathon times are getting slower. "So what?" I said. "Where's the crime?" (Article link.)
This guy asked good questions and knew a lot about running, by the way. He wanted to know if I missed the good, old days. "Sure," I thought to myself, "I wish all marathons only had 59 runners, and Runner's World's circulation was 10,000, and my weekly paycheck was $15." Just like Mary Wittenberg of the ING New York City Marathon is constantly whining: "Too many sponsor meetings, too much media coverage, too much money to give to USA developmental running groups across the country."
To me, all runners are good runners. Fast runners don't have better character than slow runners just because they have the right combination of fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibers. Neither are slow runners more moral just because they raise funds for charity groups. I like all runners equally, as long as they play fair and set a good fitness example for their friends and local communities.
This controversy about fast and slow runners is a straw house, if you ask me. It might make for good advertising campaigns (or maybe it doesn't; I don't really know.) But I don't believe it actually exists. It certainly isn't worth substantial time or debate. We've all got better things to do. Like finding time to log a few more miles this week, and maybe eliminating a Krispy Kreme or two.
When it comes to sharing our sport, the roads and parks are big enough for all of us. Let it be.
[What do you think of the Pearl Izumi campaign, the Reebok campaign, or differences among runners? Comment below.]
I think that George Sheehan summed up the difference between runners and joggers very well.
"The difference between a runner and a jogger is an entry blank."
How fast you run doesn't matter. Who cares whether you are a runner or a jogger?
I find that anytime somebody tries to debate me on the subject that I can just tout that definition and call it good.
If you're out there moving, you're OK. Lots of people are faster than me; some are slower. Who cares? I'm not competing against any of them, whether or not I'm actually in an organized race. I'm trying to improve on my own performance, not someone else's.
I was bothered by the Pearl Izumi ad campaign as well. I take running and my health seriously. Whether you want to classify me as a jogger or a runner is up to you but I don't think either term should be used in a derogatory manner. Making running/jogging welcoming and inclusive will benefit the sport as well as encourage recreational fitness.
Amby, thanks for your supportive words for us slower folks. I started running late in the game, so I don't know that I'll ever manage better than a 10 minute pace in a long race, but running means the world to me.
And as for faster, more experienced runners, I've encountered nothing but caring and support from those in my life. I have a friend who can run a 1:45 half marathon, but she emails me asking when we can run together and we do so often! 99% of runners are just awesome folks.
Hmmm...that Pearl Izumi ad is horrible! Not because of the jogger vs. runner aspect, but because of how tongue in cheek they are about someone "getting into the wrong panel van."
Yuk.
Being a marketing guy -- this ad violates a few rules, (not that some rules are meant to be broken) First - all black -- hurts the eyes -- try some white. Worst of all -- far too much writing -- granted -- running shoe ads can tend to be wordy .... somewhere I am sure some marketing researcher knows that I happen to thumb through my RW magazine - 22.5 times per month -- reading 25% of the ads 4 times - while the other 75% only two times -- So wordy might not be a bad thing... but this ad does not conjure up a good reason to wear their shoes.... it conjures up the idea that parks attrach runners and criminals -- (kinda of downer)... not the way you want a perspective shoe buyer to think of your brand.... but what do I know!
Thanks Amby,
The dead bodies ad is just weird but the other ad that made me think that I had to run a 7:00 pace all the time depressed me. I run 8:00s most of the time and have worked hard for years to get to that. 7:00s kill me and for some ad to make me feel like I'm not a runner after all the sweat and blood that I've put thru my first marathon makes me sick. A 7:00 pace marathon would send anybody to Boston and would place any runner in the top 20% or better in any race in my area (DC)
Well put. The thing I love most about running is that there are so many levels of running, and therefore the distance between levels is pretty short. If there were only joggers and pros, I would either need to give up my day job, or resign to a life of plodding in at 9/mile. With the way things are now, the next "level" is only a few minutes away.
By the way, I've enjoyed your last few blog posts and articles (especially the story on Comrades). Well done, man!
Okay, I seriously want to meet a jogger who would stop for a snow-cone mid-jog. It makes me wonder - who is writing these ads? Do they ever actually run? The overwhelming response by runners of all types to question these ads really makes me happy to be be a part of the running community. A more appropriate tagline would be "Ever wonder how it's always runners who see through the BS and call it like it is?"
I have to say the pearl izumi ad does make me wonder--I don't know anyone who runs like that, in dangerous places like that. And I'm a loner. But I DON'T jet off behind dumpsters in bad neighborhoods or down forgotten trails, because I'm not an idiot. At least the Reebok ads are encouraging more people to just run, encouraging those who lag behind that if you are out there, moving, and taking charge of your health, that is good. More Americans need to get off their duffs and do SOMETHING. So...I can almost dig those ads.
But for me, running is so intensely personal, that no ad will influence me too much. I choose running for my own reasons. I chose it because I could compete only with myself, or with others. Because there are no hard and fast requirements for where and how a person must run to qualify as running. I run to be alone, to think, and to enjoy the sense of power in myself. I love that running is such an individualistic, and yet communal sport. Glad to hear so many others feel the same. And that most of us DON'T encounter dead bodies.
Thank you for griping on this (as someone more likely to be listened to than I am). Like a previous poster - I bust tuchus to get 8 minute miles. This doesn't make running less vital or interesting.
GOOD ad campaigns - the propel one? I am particularly fond of the stress monster and horse ones... That is a campaign that has runners working on it!
...I think everyone is missing the point
The Pearl Ad is not about going fast, it is about pushing yourself. They call out a classic definition of running by pace. But then in the same breath they are saying that running pace is different for everyone.
I think that we all need to push ourselves a little bit more.
A relaxing run is fine. But pushing yourself to your limits is so much more rewarding.
A runner finds their limits and pushes themselves. A jogger is a recreational runner.
As a new runner, I was disappointed to hear that there are some in the sport that look down beginners, casual runners, or anyone running at less-than-elite speeds, but not surprised. As it's pointed out in the column for penguins, those people exist in every hobby and pursuit.
But I'm incredibly encouraged by how much the REST of the running community shuns these exclusive attitudes. That's something rare and unique, and it makes me proud to call myself a runner. Or a jogger, or a mortal, or a penguin. Or whatever! I put on running shoes 3 times a week and go.
As far as the ad goes, I really doubt the person who wrote is part of the running community. He or she inappropriately tries to tap the "extreeeeeme" vibe for the running crowd, and it's a just a bit silly. Also, I couldn't help but think that those "runners" who supposedly jet, hyper-awarely, of course, through abandoned mine shafts, old factories, and virgin mountain ranges don't end up as dead bodies themselves! I'm in an area where mountain lions are still a common sighting, and let me tell you, a sno-cone stand can feel like a far preferable think to be blocking your path.
The Pearl Izumi ads are short sighted and bad marketing. As Amby Burfoot's article points out the vast majority of runners are in a different space / mind set. Why create an ad that focus a to a very small percentage of runners?
Further, elite and advanced runners already know what the like to run in. The market share and section of the market that they (Pearl Izumi) should want to influence are isolated and marginalized by the ads. If the Izumi CEO, clear out my marketing department.
I agree that I didn't like the ad. I found the whole body finding aspect disturbing and it just went down from there.
Last year while running a fellow runner started talking to me about how he thought it was terrible that people who walked a marathon got the same medal that he did for running a marathon. This made me incredibly angry. Anyone who does a marathon at any pace has had to train and absolutely deserves the medal!
I think we all need to support each other--regardless of our pace or anyone else's
I think the Pearl Izumi are funny, but not accurate. I have only been running a couple of years, but I know I need fast days and slow days.
You are sounding a lot like "The Penguin" in this blog, but that is okay, I happen to think he is right, "The Miracle is not that I finished, the Miracle is that I had the courage to begin!" Slow runners beat the tar out of couch potatoes!
Amby, quite some time ago I posted on a friend's blog (Meghan on running-blogs.com) that "I wanted to run like an animal."
So it was quite funny to read words I had thought of quite a while ( a year or so) ago - and which refer to feelings buried who knows how far back - in an ad for running shoes.
I think the reason why the ad does not work for some runners and joggers alike, is that while it "concludes" they should run like animals, it "cages" them in categories and environments they don't easily relate to.
Shoes are unlikely to be (credibly) sold as instict enhancers. Istinct comes from repeated experience, either directly personal or absorbed. Many years ago Nike used to have some quite emotional and poetic messages in their ads ("When the road calls, it screams.") They lost that path. And I don't think they found better ones. Neither have any other brands. I can't think of any.
Maybe the writers in this ad know about running but not enough about Nature. Animals don't race: they only run when they need to. Usually to capture food or to run away from being captured. For travel. Occasionally for play. But a hippo and a cheeetah - which may imaginatively conjure a metaphor of human diversity on the starting line of an "urban jungle roadrace," don't really race against each other. They tend to ignore one another. The jungle and its alleged urban counterpart are not the same...
By the way: all this is hypothesized as "biophilia" and the closest I have gotten to thinking I have "sensed it" has been on my most relaxed barefoot runs (since i started almost 4 years ago.) Where it is the surface and the tactile environment, which tell me how to run, rather than my will, my shoes, my clothes or my thoughts. The feet's contact with the terrain determine how I can run, how fast, how far. I think that's why trail running is becoming so popular.
Sometimes I wonder if shoe manufacturers should diversify and start producing or conserving ideal running surfaces rather than running shoes...
Sincerely,
Corrado
PS. I ran one 11k race in the mountains while on vacation a couple of weeks ago, with a little asphalt but mostly on trails with granite gravel and different size stones and slabs. On the asphalt I could reach my racing speed (about 3:40/Km.) On the rocks I had to slow down significantly. In the end I was exhausted regardless. A wonderful feeling which put me in touch with all those around me. Runners and non runners alike. Even the spectators or passers-by who maybe were so tired from their workweek to even begin thinking about a "fun" run, or one for a charitable cause, or to advance a running club in the local standings...
If shoemakers think people will buy shoes to make them go faster or because they will be cooler, arguably they will not be very succesfull.
It might just be that in this second running boom we are experiencing, with races having become so predictable and widespread mass events, running-and-jogging-philes might be more interested in defining themselves, in biophilic terms, what kind of animal, organism they are, rather than the number of humans they came ahead of or behind, in whatever multitude of seconds.
I myself resonate between a steinbock and a hippo... a very skinny hippo... with two big horns representing the weight of all these thoughts that come to mind, and which no doubt slow me down (no doubt, I think too much)... but yes, a hippo and a steinbock mixed with some marine creature I haven't quite yet put into focus... How about you? In the end, maybe it is just an articulation of a particularly pleasant personal experience which I can nonetheless share with many people in many sorroundings... Take care.
I agree with Bill who posted on 8/1 at 7:55 am - we should all stop being offended by the marketing tactic to divide runners and joggers and spend more energy to push ourselves beyond our own limits. I personally do pretty well in my agegroup, but get blown away by the folks who win races (4, 5, even 6-minute milers). My 7 minute pace is like jogging to the elite runners. It's all a matter of perspective!
I happen to really like the advertisements that make me feel like I'm a runner - because I am faster than average women my age! I always correct folks who ask me how my afternoon jog was...
I have to admit that I'm irritated by slower runners and even walkers, but it's usually because they stand in the very front of the starting line area and don't realize they are in the way and causing traffic issues at the beginning of the race. Or they wear a fuel belt to a 5K. Or talk on the cell phone during a race... the list could go on!
Run strong, everyone!
I think they are ads. I think people should lighten up. I think I will go running today regardless of ads. I also happen to think the Perl Izumi's are good looking shoes...but I have no idea how they run. I'd like to read an article about someone who put some miles on a pair.
I found the Pearl Izumi ad to be disgusting. As someone who has a dark sense of humor (I work in the ER) and deal with death on a frequent basis, I was offended by how casually they referenced runners finding "dead bodies". What you don't hear is how nasty and traumatizing that would be for the person finding them, and how devastating that would be for the families of the victims.
Bottom line - NOT FUNNY!
Glad to see an editorial about this. While leafing through last month's issue, I saw this and just moved on. I understand what the company is trying to do. Unfortunately though, I see it as a line in the sand to many runners, something which is detrimental. Some runners might remember the name, but for the wrong reasons--namely when buying a new pair of shoes.
It doesn't bother me per se, but it certainly doesn't make me want to run out and buy their shoes either.
Pearl Izumi is trying to shake an image of being a brand for bicyclists, and adopt a "we make equipment for elite athletes in both running and cycling" image. They know they aren't competing with Nike for the casual runner, so their ads are not targeted for the casual runner.
Reebok's ads are targeted at the casual runner, the 80% of running shoe buyers that do 20% of the actual running.
Personally, I have a Pearl Izumi ad tacked to my office wall, and would never put up one of those "Run Easy" abominations that discourage hard work and self improvement.
As for my actual feet, though, I prefer Nikes.
So did they find the Pearl Izumi's on the dead body? They look like they've been buried in mud and in the wild for some time. I suppose I'll cancel my run in the wooded park this evening and jog through my suburban neighborhood instead. I'll try to speed up my pace as I pass the houses with the paneled vans. Perhaps in those faster moments I can call myself a runner. Every day I make it out the front door I'm pushing myself.
The ad is funny, and as a beginner, I agree that the difference between a runner and a jogger is a blank entry.
But people, do your civic duty - keep running and search for dead body! Enjoy the humor, life is too short to contemplate on the content of this ad :)
... yeah, why not, share a laugh, make a cheer, do some more mindless buying...