Crunch Fitness: No Judgements

 

Working on Crunch was one of the formative experiences of my career. It's still some of my favorite work. It was the kind of creative opportunity that only comes around once or twice in a career. ​​​

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Fresh out of the Creative Circus, I was the lead creative on the account from 1999 until 2003. 

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I had the privilege of working directly with the Founder and CEO, Doug Levine, who profoundly understood the business value of creativity. Doug gave me an incredible gift: very high standards and very low budgets. It wasn't just about creativity in concepting. It was about creativity in production–as in hands-on, DIY, run-and-gun, dirt road, duct tape guerrilla-style production. I came up with award winning ideas and wrote award winning copy but I also–out of necessity–illustrated a lot of ads myself and won national awards for that work as well. And sometimes I had to be my own producer and my own director and my own voice talent.

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Doug formed Crunch's core philosophy and brand position when he started the company: No Judgements.

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"No Judgements" was a radical, 180-degree departure from the rest of the fitness world; a vast sea of sleek ads featuring chiseled, glistening bodies that made consumers feel at best envious and at worst ashamed of their lack of perfection.

 

No Judgements was all about making people feel welcome at the gym instead of intimidated or guilty. It was about making the gym fun. And it wasn't just a marketing facade–the philosophy was baked into the product with novelty merchandise (like the T-shirts that I illustrated), irreverent posters and signage in the gyms (which I also illustrated), and truly creative, press-worthy classes like the original Cardio Striptease.

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This client had an appetite for a high volume of creative output, so the mission to find as many unique ways to dramatize No Judgements as possible and produce them as cheaply as possible. Mission gladly accepted.

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