I don't know whether this constitutes a "bad review," but I doubt it. Maybe it's more along the lines of an anonymous personal attack. But I doubt that too, because I'm not providing pictures or naming names.

Anyway, at the supermarket this morning, I saw a commercialized SUV for a franchised physical fitness center I will not name. But it's one of those places with a quasi messianic message, and I am sure the company prides itself on its, um, "image," and the driver of the SUV happened to be a man in his 30s with a rather large gut. Not that there's anything unusual about having a large gut. Mine have come and gone, and I work out a lot, and try not to be judgmental about normal people, but.... Considering the blaring message custom-painted on the SUV, something about the gut was enormously funny, and made me want to burst out laughing, which I didn't, because the guy would have known why, and I don't enjoy hurting people's feelings. This is the kind of thing which would generate ill-will if I named the company, and the company isn't the point at all (even if I wouldn't advise anyone to go there).

However, I did find myself wondering about marketing. For all I know, this guy is on the road to genuine improvement and he might a walking advertisement for the company who is able to pull out some truly appalling "before" pictures to inspire obese men to sign up. Then again, he could be a backslider, or just a customer they sent to the store. No way to know. But it seemed a bit like catching a guy who runs a "STOP SMOKING" group lighting up in an alley. Certainly, this does not involve morality on the level of a TV evangelist being caught in bed with a prostitute, but moral fitness is not being marketed here. It's physical fitness. Is it more convincing to have a slim ballet dancer with washboard abs who makes his living as a model and couldn't gain weight if he tried? Or a real person with a real story of major self-improvement with whom potential customers can readily self-identify? (While the former would be a walking advertisement, the latter would have to tell his story.) Might it depend on the target market?

I don't know, but I'm just wondering.

Normally, I would have never noticed the man (who looks like countless guys his age) but the circumstances made him look very ridiculous.