If there’s one thing that you can guarantee will be in the shops in time for Christmas, it’s fitness DVDs promoted by celebrities. Not the real stars of course, as they’re too busy earning millions doing the day job. Instead, the DVDs carry the names of minor celebrities – here are eight reasons why I find them annoying …
1. Front(wo)man
Nobody needs to be a genius to work out that putting a celebrity’s name on the box is a marketing exercise. Naturally, they’re not fitness experts, and the real work on devising the routines has been done by a professional. So it seems rather false for the DVD to be promoted as if the ‘star’ is responsible for it.
2. Her Again!
Presumably, these DVDs must make money, as many stars do more than one. This begs the question, though – why do they need to do that, if the first one was any good? It rather implies that it was somehow inadequate – or would do if we didn’t know that they’re just trying to squeeze as much money out of their fading career as they can.
3. Same Pictures
Another thing I really find annoying is that they all carry the same kind of pictures on the cover. Granted, you wouldn’t expect a fitness DVD to be promoted by pictures of someone fully dressed, but they always show a) a badly lit, unflattering ‘before’ photo and b) a smiling, trim ‘after’ photo (doubtless airbrushed).
