Chic Sustainability and Lululemon

Online Advertisement: The Exercise Clothing of Lululemon

One of the most controversial and successful brands of athletic wear is Lululemon. Lululemon has become so synonymous with yoga its clothing has become integral to the stereotype of an affluent, (usually) white, suburban woman who does yoga and is very into physical fitness as well as has the budget to support her fitness habit. The company, however, has also been the target of a great deal of backlash regarding its products’ sustainability, encouragement of unhealthy behaviors, and lack of diversity on its website. Lululemon, partially because many of its consumers identify as socially conscious, has tried to diversify its fashion models and also launch advertisement campaigns that encourage healthier attitudes to exercise, life, stress, and even food.

This aspiration and attempt to change the company’s brand image can be seen in the text of the above-cited advertisement. In it, a woman wearing the iconic Lululemon pants is shown in a yoga pose, hands as if in meditation upon her knees. She is also wearing what appears to be a Lululemon top and has her hair pulled back, as if ready to do yoga. The advertisement reads: “Namaste or Snack Away.” The use of the yoga term namaste, or peace, immediately attempts to create a sense of ethos or ethical validation for Lululemon and therefore the advertisement.

By using a yoga pose, and a model who is practicing yoga rather than showing off her fit, thin body and beautifully made-up face to the camera, the subtle implication is that the company knows the real reason people are doing yoga, namely to find some sort of stress relief and inner peace from their daily routine. By suggesting that yoga is about mental as well as physical fitness, the company attempts to solidify its ethical credibility and knowledge of yoga for its target consumer. This also responds to criticisms lodged at the expensive yoga gear sold by a company for an exercise practice that is supposed to be about renunciation and minimalism, as well as comes from outside Western, capitalist culture.

In addition to the ethos or credibility the advertisement attempts to cultivate, the advertisement also attempts to show pathos in the emotions it elicits from the target, most likely female, yogi. The use of a blank background image and a soothing color palate of purples and blues creates an image of serenity. The fact that the selected model is of average weight and fitness, and not excessively toned encourages identification between the advertisement’s consumer and the woman in the advertisement.

There is also use of humor in pairing the yoga word namaste and snacking, stressing that Lululemon gear is optimal for both snacking and meditating. Someone does not need to choose between the two, and there is value in both techniques of stress relief, is the ad’s implication. According to Mieka Tennant’s article on “Chic Sustainability,” Lululemon has long marketed itself as clothing someone can wear “working out and out to lunch” and has a cache beyond its functionality in terms of the values and beautiful lifestyle embodied by its target consumer (Tennant 14). Even the negative connotations attached to over-consuming, fast fashion, and being overly concerned with one’s appearance in the yoga community and in its liberal demographic are consciously offset in the advertisement by showing the brand embracing self-care, relaxing with comforting food as well as meditation (the working out aspect of yoga is not, in fact, stressed at all in the advertisement), as well as the green and sustainability initiatives emphasized on the company website, according to Tennant.

The advertisement even uses logos, by stressing the rational and practical aspects of the durability and comfort of the clothing (again responding to critics who have criticized both the expense and long-wearing nature of the product), and the fact that it is multifunctional for a variety of uses because of its quality, thus, in essence, saving money. The context of the advertisement was likely in response to the still-remembered fallout of the suggestion that Lululemon promoted unhealthy attitudes to women’s bodies and unhealthy exercise and eating habits.