As a millennial, I have a complicated relationship with the fitness industry. Having grown up surrounded by the harmful image that extreme thinness is the ideal state of being, I am cynical of any attempt to push the message in the fitness field. While it’s true that the fitness branding space is now more inclusive, exercise is still typically promoted around how we look rather than how we feel. And it’s difficult for brands to get it right in an authentic way.
But Sweaty Betty rebranded and this campaign really resonated with me. The new message, which centers on how exercise can change your mindset, bring positivity, and improve your mood, feels authentic, rather than bombastic or forced. I think this is one of the best rebrands I’ve seen.
The campaign, led by Fluoro, features videos shot in a DIY style (as if they were shot by a friend), showing people working out together without focusing too much on their own bodies. It’s full of women’s groups. The images are accompanied by messages such as “Being strong means being happy with yourself” and “Embracing your body and what it can do.”
This campaign is fun and involves more than just exercising to reduce the calories you ate or didn’t eat last night. Instead of being encouraged to “change yourself,” you are encouraged to “be yourself.” This is a way to think about fitness that is healthy for the mind and body, and a real way to motivate your body to move, and I can support it.
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“Ensuring that the message we send to the world is not about how exercise makes our bodies look, but about how exercise makes us feel and what it can help us with. That’s important to us. Women are under enough pressure without someone defining the ‘right’ way to exercise,” says Melissa Mullen, Sweetie Betty’s Global Brand President.
“Thankfully, a reckoning around health, realisation, and aesthetics is beginning. We want to be at the forefront of that movement. Fluoro has understood our mission from the beginning, and they We’re excited to bring it to life with a new brand vision that will inspire and resonate with our global community.”