A cheeky advertising campaign by a Perth gym has failed to find favour with some local folk.
Billboards have been plastered across the city and online in a bid to encourage people to join the Fit4Less gym on Canal Street.
Unfortunately, their tongue-in-cheek efforts may prove counterproductive, as some have taken offence at the poster.
While advising potential customers that using their gym to lose weight could help them avoid alien abduction, the advert bears the slogan: “They’re coming and when they arrive, they’ll take the fat ones first”.
We were contacted by a local reader, who said: “I was horrified to see this sort of advertising in Perth for a gym. How can they get away with this?”
General manager at Fit4Less Perth, Ben Cooling, defended the poster.
He told The Courier: “Our January campaign has received an overwhelmingly positive response from our members and the public, but we are always interested to hear all opinions.
“Its tongue-in-cheek sense of humour has been created to get people to think about fitness, evoke emotions and make them take action.
“We could run with the obvious ‘New Year, New You’ campaign and put a picture of a fit person on the poster, but that is not the Fit4less style.
“We do not mean in any way to offend people, but if our campaign reaches out to someone that would not normally think about joining a gym, then we can say it has been successful.
“We are happy to talk to anyone that would like to discuss this and share their views with us.”
This isn’t the first time the Energie group, which owns the Fit4Less franchise, has used humour to attract customers.
A previous marketing initiative saw huge posters put up across the country, saying: “Tired of being fat and ugly? Just be ugly at Fit4Less.”