Embarrassment First

February 4th, 2010 Posted in General |

Fitness First, a gym in Amsterdam, had the amusing (if a bit mean-spirited) idea to shame people into working out by publicly revealing their weight. They hooked up an ad on the side of a bus shelter to the bench inside so that whenever anyone sat down while waiting for the bus, their weight was displayed in huge numbers on the ad like the readout on a bathroom scale.

I’m not sure if the commute is the best time to remind people they’re fat - even the accompanying video shows people recoiling from the seat in horror after they’ve figured out what the numbers on the ad mean. Plus, working out isn’t an instant fix for weight loss, so even if these people did join the gym, they would still face embarrassment on the seat-scale for weeks. I bet it at least inspired a few people to walk instead of taking the bus, though.