Screw You, Mr. Borg, and Your Photoshopped Hair Too

As of a few days ago, there ads at every bus stop in Copenhagen with a picture of a very happy-looking guy in a blue-and-yellow speedo (Sweden's colors). The words "spread the spirit" are written in the corner. I tried to find a picture to post here, but I was unable. However this is apparently part of some underwear campaign by some underwear company called Björn Borg, which I proceeded to look up. They're also part of a fashion group of some kind called "Swedish Exports." The joke being that the chief export of Sweden is beautiful people (it's made clear by the site. The people refer to themselves, not their clothes, as being "Swedish exports.") Anyway, site is here. Don't click that if you're at work, in a library, or have self-respect.*

I could go on at length about the body image issues present in the ad itself, but I feel like the more frustrating business is the way their image is presented on the site. They have a photo contest wherein you post a picture of yourself wearing their underwear, and people vote on the best photo. My original thought was that this was going to be a bunch of bodybuilders, but was surprised to find a few people who looked like me on the site. Then I dug a little further and noticed that those photos were meant as comedy spots, or stereotypically "alternative" in some way. Now, I'm not really saying anything that hasn't been said a million times before, but what the hell, let's hear it again. You can be pretty, or you can be funny. And if you're funny, you're probably joking about how you're not pretty (there are two photos of average-looking guys striking manly poses).

My first thought when I saw the bus-stop ad was, "I'll stop complaining when there's an ad with someone who looks like me, or anyone I know." So let's pretend that the website, at least, had photos representative of the body types of the population-at-large (which it didn't, but we're pretending). The photo they chose to print at every bus stop in the city is still the one of the ripped guy. So, thank you Mr. Borg, for making one tiny, arbitrary step on your website towards diversity in advertising. When the overweight guy makes it onto a mainstream ad, and it's *not* intended as a comedy spot, I'll stop complaining.

*I sold mine to the devil for awesome guitar skills