Will Reebok EasyTone Trainers Improve Kelly Brook's Butt?
It's official, Kelly Brook is the face of Reebok's EasyTone Trainers. But, what does this mean for Kelly? We're guessing that firstly she'll have to resist the impulse to enter any pie-eating competitions for the duration of her contract (although some furious munching would come as a welcome light distraction from the intensity of her recent foray into method acting). She is also going to have to avoid any Paris Hilton style "That's not my handbag" fiascos, but to our knowledge kelly is a good girl who wouldn't do anything so silly.
Will she need to be seen in public wearing her toning footwear? Would a glimpse of Kelly wearing EasyTones on the red carpet be what Reebok is really after? If she spawned copycat trainer wearing at awards ceremonies then Reebok will have had more than their money's worth.
The only problem is that as Kelly would know, it's a bit of a dilemma - to sport the shoes in public is to admit that you are not 100% happy with your butt. If the trainers were a 'male' product, would the same questions apply? Reebok could have asked Brad Pitt, or for a lesser fee perhaps Ben Affleck to advertise EasyTones. I'm guessing that Brad is both too expensive, and also a bit discerning, but on the other hand, Ben fits the bill. But, would his butt be good enough? And here another dilemma arises, do you have to have a good butt to start with to advertise butt enhancing trainers. At the moment EasyTone trainers are a female product, but if the male version is released would Brad Pitt's Butt be worth the extra cash for an advertising fee over Ben Affleck's? ( I know who I'd put my money on).
Which brings us to the question of 'Can Kelly Brook's butt be improved?' This is a highly subjective area, as the adverts prior to Kelly's involvement have focused on very well toned 'small butt'. Here is an implication that 'small is good', which may be a bit of a judgement call on behalf of Reebok's marketing team.
Or, are they merely adhering to the culturally specific ideas of what a good butt should be? Take yourself to another country, ask the locals what a good butt looks like and you may be confronted with a whole different concept.
A well toned but slightly larger butt may be a bit of a draw in cultures outside of the U.S. hegemonic model, and it remains to be seen whether the marketing of EasyTones will take this into consideration in geo-targetted campaigns outside of the U.S. and Europe.
But, aside from cultural issues, the phenomenon of celebrity endorsement should surely be called into question. (Without going a step further and delving into the issue of celebrity obsession itself - which is a mire of the socio-psycho collective consciousness).
Do we really believe in celebrity endorsement, or do we really need proof of a products' s value. Are we really so vacuous as a species as to believe that if we buy celebrity endorsed products the celebrity's highly polished smile will be enough of a guarantee of the product's claim, which in this case is the (achievement) of a great butt.
But, what is the alternative? Science and research? You would think that the font of knowledge lies within scientific research. Hmmm. Recent research by 'scientists' has apparently 'shown' that exercise does not help you lose weight. This runs contrary to the scientific thought of at least the past thirty years, which has sent millions to the gym three times a week in a effort to reduce weight. Without delving too much into ideas of knowledge and epistemology, it wasn't too long ago that the world was thought to be flat. What next? Smoking is discovered to have beneficial health effects? So, who do we believe, Kelly or the scientists?
Ultimately it is only Kelly who will know if her butt has improved. Image altering technology means that we never see the truth in magazines anyway. And Television adds a few pounds so we can discount it as a weight loss or toning litmus test. So, at this point we will just have to wish Kelly the best, we know that she probably doesn't need EasyTones, but, as long as they don't somehow walk her into the nearest fast food joint on a regular basis, we are probably going to at the very least imagine that her butt has improved.
