Branding, Culture, Politics, and Everything in Between

OK, my last few posts have touched cultural branding in name only, so I thought I’d write about a phenomenon that is a prime example of cultural branding. I’m going to talk about the gym that trained the actors and stunt men for the movie “300″.

Would you go to a gym that trained these guys?

300 was one of the biggest box office surprises of 2007, grossing over 450 million worldwide while costing only 65 million to make. Critics blasted the movie for being over the top macho, its black and white good guy vs. bad guys treatment and corny dialogue. Fans of the movie loved it for the very same reasons.

One of the basic tenets of cultural branding is that brands (and other cultural products, such as movies) can work as pressure valves in soothing contradictions that plague society. From a cultural branding standpoint, 300 is just another “redemption” movie for us confused and somewhat emasculated modern men who are torn between conflicting expectations as to what it means to be a “man”. 300 provided us men with an ideal male role model to aspire to in these confusing times, a real man’s man but with a touch of softness and idealism. By the way, I believe that the crisis of the “modern man” is the longest running societal contradiction that has been available for marketers since the 1960s. Most societal contradictions span a decade or so, but this crisis has yet to be resolved. The last big movie wave that addressed this contradiction happened in the early 2000s, when Gladiator, the Patriot and the Perfect Storm hit the theaters. At the time, the movies were popular especially among women, as all the movies featured loving father figures that still showed a masculine side when forced to defend one’s family. I remember at the time reading an article in either Rolling Stone or Vanity Fair that “this is the kind of man that modern women want” and I remember the article feeling sort of sorry for men as there’s no possible way most men could live up to these expectations. 300 is a sort of sequel to this societal discussion, but in my view from a male perspective – how men want to see themselves.

300 in itself would make for a good case for how a movie managed to hit a nerve in today’s society, but I want to take this example a bit further. After the movie came out, one of the main questions on everybody’s lips was “how the hell did those guys get in such good shape?” Well, the answer was to be found in a remote private gym in Utah called Gym Jones.

Gym Jones is as Spartan as the soldiers in the movie itself.

Brands become icons in part when they become “props” for myth stories portrayed in cultural products, such as movies, books or articles. Well, Gym Jones got a lot of publicity that linked it favorably to 300, which itself became a buzzworthy topic in fitness circles. The gym itself was as crude and Spartan as the movie itself. Fitness magazines featured the cast and crew’s unorthodox training methods and grueling workout sessions. The gym in many ways embodied the ideals of the movie of sacrifice and manliness. Because of this credible linkage to the movie 300, Gym Jones was already on its way to iconic status. However, brands become even more iconic if they display a certain literacy and fidelity to an ethos or ideal instead of just making money and going for broad based popularity (think Harley Davidson and Hell’s Angels, again). Gym Jones can hardly be accused of being after broad popularity and money, as per their website:

Whoever said, “there are no stupid questions” was wrong. We are not interested in helping beginners, the indolent, or the ignorant. Contacting us implies you have done your utmost to become informed through other avenues and experience. It means you understand Gym Jones is not a mainstream facility using conventional methods to address sport or work-related challenges. Finally, by sending a note you acknowledge understanding that we are not waiting around for it.

Before composing a note please read these statements:

E-mail asking for dietary advice will be deleted.
E-mail asking us to supply an individually tailored training program will be deleted.
E-mail containing the question, “Where do I buy/get/find?” will be deleted.

The gym is not interested in making money or making it “big” and they let you know it. It’s not a gym that everybody can get into, but it’s a gym that everybody would WANT to train in. If you look at their training journals, you see that they train like crazy. And if you look at the “knowledge” section of their website, you will learn that they are very uncompromising in their ethos. They aren’t your average “smile while on the treadmill in your David gear” gym. They don’t care if you don’t like them.

Gym Jones fills many of the characteristics of iconic brands: it’s situated in rural Utah, far removed from the commercial and political elites. Its ethos speaks to an acute contradiction in our society (men confused with society’s expectations of them) in a credible and very charismatic way. It has credible linkages to cultural products (300) that bolster its iconic status. But most of all, Gym Jones seems authentic in its championing of a cause. I doubt that the owners of the gym are even interested in broadening their popularity, but that’s the whole appeal behind it.