{"id":1503,"date":"2007-05-13T13:29:17","date_gmt":"2007-05-13T18:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/just-half-ass-it\/"},"modified":"2007-05-13T13:29:17","modified_gmt":"2007-05-13T18:29:17","slug":"just-half-ass-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/just-half-ass-it","title":{"rendered":"Just Half-Ass It"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was sitting in Boston’s South Station for an hour or so last week, and I found myself\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 transfixed by Reebok’s new ad Run Easy<\/a> campaign. Huge banners hung above the doors of the train station, bearing slogans that I found a little perplexing:<\/p>\n

Run to the beat of your own drummer. Run Easy.<\/p>\n

Conversation is fuel. Run Easy.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the ride. Run Easy.<\/p>\n

Why Hit the Wall? It hurts. Run Easy.<\/p>\n

Why run till you can’t walk? Run Easy.<\/p>\n

What are you Just Doing? Run Easy.<\/p>\n

Congratulations. You can’t stand up. Run Easy.<\/p>\n

A 10-minute mile is just as far as a 6-minute mile. Run Easy.<\/p>\n

Did you beat your best time or just yourself? Run Easy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There were a couple of Boston-specific banners:<\/p>\n

Big Dig has set the pace. Run Easy Boston.<\/p>\n

The British aren’t coming. The British aren’t coming. Run Easy Boston.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I said, I was transfixed. Isn’t there a reason all sports-related marketing is aspirational? I can understand trying to subvert standard advertising tropes — those Sublymonal<\/a> ads can be pretty funny — but this just goes beyond the pale. Sure, you don’t want to tell people that they’ll win the Boston Marathon if they buy your sneakers, but telling them that it’s okay to slack off?<\/p>\n

In addition to these “Run Easy”s, each banner featured Reebok’s tagline beneath its logo: I Am What I Am<\/em>. Now, I appreciate coming up with a slogan that puts us all in mind of the Torah<\/a> and\/or the greatest performance-enhancing-substance-abuser<\/a> next to Barry Bonds, but in tandem with this campaign, it comes off as “Eh. Why bother? Running isn’t going to make me any better.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was sitting in Boston’s South Station for an hour or so last week, and I found myself\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 transfixed by Reebok’s new ad Run Easy campaign. Huge banners hung above the doors of the train station, bearing slogans that I found a little perplexing: Run to the beat of your own drummer. Run Easy. Conversation … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Just Half-Ass It”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,20,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-religion","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-of","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4693,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-nov-27-2009","url_meta":{"origin":1503,"position":0},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Nov. 27, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"November 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Post-Thanksgiving links! Enjoy the long weekend! I'm off to Philadelphia for my 20-year high-school reunion. (Or maybe not. I'm feeling lousy with the beginnings of the same cold that knocked my wife out last week, and it'd be dumb to run myself down and get heavy-duty sick right at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=039333354X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1528,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/bo-knew-plenty","url_meta":{"origin":1503,"position":1},"title":"Bo Knew Plenty","author":"Gil","date":"May 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been 20 years since Bo Jackson's rookie season with the Royals. My key Bo baseball memories: that mammoth home-run in the All-Star game, and an inside-the-park home-run that he ran in like Olympic sprinter-time. Here's that great Nike commercial.","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","block_context":{"text":"Sports","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":258,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/notes-from-new-hampshire","url_meta":{"origin":1503,"position":2},"title":"Notes from New Hampshire","author":"Gil","date":"June 19, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey, VM readers! Here's another non-Gil treat for you! My buddy Elayne is up at her farm-house in New Hampshire this summer, finishing up her book, and sent me a lengthy missive yesterday. She's a pretty funny story-teller, so I asked if it'd be okay to run this piece. I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1249,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/is-the-world-run-by-soccer-moms","url_meta":{"origin":1503,"position":3},"title":"Is the world run by soccer moms?","author":"Gil","date":"December 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Time magazine says Whitney Houston has it wrong: it is All-Everybody Day.","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/is-the-world-run-by-soccer-moms#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4617,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/dont-tase-my-pumpkin-bro-or-you-look-like-a-man-o-lantern","url_meta":{"origin":1503,"position":4},"title":"Don’t Tase My Pumpkin, Bro! (Or, You Look Like a Man-O-Lantern)","author":"Gil","date":"October 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't posted a trip to the Drew Friedmanizer in a long time, but this morning's scroll through the Wall Street Journal was too tempting: The accompanying article is about Boulder, CO's annual naked pumpkin run. It's a 4-block streak in a city famed for its laid-back, hippyish culture. Apparently,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Drew Friedmanizer"","block_context":{"text":"The Drew Friedmanizer","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/the-drew-friedmanizer"},"img":{"alt_text":"pumpkinhead.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/pumpkinhead.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":70,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/holy-shit","url_meta":{"origin":1503,"position":5},"title":"Holy Shit","author":"Gil","date":"October 18, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm on the road at present, touring pharma and genomics facilities in Phoenix (Wed.-Fri.) and visiting my best friend and his True Love in San Diego (Fri.-Sun.). It's a little tiring, not least because I'll be flying off to Salt Lake City next week for the AAPS conference, and off\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}