Are Naked Athletes Working for Reebok?
With all the fuzzy, grainy home videos posted on YouTube it’s sometimes difficult to tell whether a brand has seeded a video or it’s just some goofy guys trying to gain notoriety.
The latest buzz is over two viral videos showing naked people working out. In one video, several people are working out in a gym. A naked, Chuck Lidell, an extreme fighter, (with certain areas blurred out) pumps up and down on a chin-up bar as his girlfriend Heidi Northcott, a professional poker player keeps a steady pace going on an elliptical machine sans clothing. The video had been viewed more than 11,000 times.
In a second video Cincinnati Bengals wide-receiver Chad Ochocinco is jogging through the woods. Viewers don’t see him clearly until he emerges from behind some foliage, does a few stretches then takes a turn to jog up a short hill and back down—clearly naked. Well almost, all three are wearing Reebok shoes.
The videos look amateurish, but make one wonder whether Reebook had a hand in this. The Lidell video adds the words “Reebok Ad” at times, so it appears it is a planted video Reebok hopes will sail off virally, but I haven’t seen any such wording on the Ochocicno video (110 views so far). Either way, Reebok is gaining the attention. Take a look and let us know what you think?
A more interesting question might be how they convinced Lidell, Northcott and Ochocicno to take it all off?
March 9th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Knowing Chad Ochocinco, this is all a gimmick for a shoe commercial
March 9th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
It’s less wind-resistance!
I could watch Chuck Liddel all day, yum! ;) And if I had a body like Heidi and no modesty whatsoever, perhaps I would workout naked in front of the nation as well.
But back to the point… Yes, I think this is totally planted by Reebok. They’ll come out with some new clever slogan that will bring it all together.
And now i’ll sit back and wait for my call from HR, wondering why I was looking at nude videos on my lunch hour.