Yoga in advertising

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The Om ‌ॐ symbol and mandalas are examples of yoga materials sometimes used to adorn yoga studios, possibly inappropriately.[1]

Yoga in advertising is the use of images of modern yoga as exercise to market products of any kind, whether related to yoga or not. Goods sold in this way have included canned beer, fast food and computers.

Yoga is an ancient

Anusara Yoga. Yoga has become a physical activity mainly for women
, and is marketed mainly to them.

The purpose of using yoga in advertising ranges from giving a favourable impression of a product or service, to selling specific yoga-related items like classes, clothing and props. Some such uses, such as of religious symbols like the sacred syllable Om, have been described as cultural appropriation. Yoga advertisements employ themes such as the sexual objectification of women, self-transformation through physical means, and the promise of reduced stress. Images of women in difficult yoga poses feature in advertisements to convey desirable qualities.

Context

Main article: Yoga as exercise

Yoga is an ancient meditational spiritual practice from India. Its goal, detachment from the self or kaivalya, was replaced by the self-affirming goals of good health, reduced stress, and physical flexibility.[2] In the early 20th century, it was transformed through Western influences and a process of innovation in India to become an exercise practice.[3] Around the 1960s, modern yoga was transformed further by three global changes: Westerners were able to travel to India, and Indians were able to migrate to the West; people in the West became disillusioned with organised religion, and started to look for alternatives; and yoga became an uncontroversial form of exercise suitable for mass consumption.[4]

Yoga marketing

Further information: List of yoga schools and Yoga tourism
a yoga pose
on screen
Downward Dog pose.[5]

The growth of yoga as exercise from the 1980s to the 2000s encouraged the market to diversify, first-generation yoga brands such as Iyengar Yoga being joined by second-generation brands such as Anusara Yoga. The scholar of yoga Andrea Jain writes that these were "mass-marketed to the general populace"; successful brands were able to gain audiences of hundreds of thousands from cities around the world.[6] This in turn led to regulation. Professional organisations such as the Yoga Alliance and the European Union of Yoga maintain registries of yoga schools that provide appropriate yoga teacher training, and of yoga teachers who have been trained on approved courses.[7][8] Certifying organisations such as Yoga Alliance have set out guidelines for how their members and others may use their logos in advertisements.[9]

In the Western world, yoga has become "feminized ... both in theory and in practice".

corporate logo) are seen to be commercial but are at least directly connected to yoga practice.[5]

Other uses, for products unrelated to yoga, have been described as ranging from "offensive" to "just plain bizarre", with the Hindu god

Buddha, Ganesha, Patanjali, and Shiva need to be treated with "reverence", just as the Om symbol, yoga sutras, and mandalas are not "décor" and that they should not be added "casually" to beautify a yoga space.[1]
On the other hand, the first-generation Indian American yoga researcher and teacher, Rina Deshpande, writes that people from India can feel excluded if Indian words and symbols are forbidden in an attempt to make yoga classes more inclusive. Deshpande notes that it is ironic that yoga is now "often marketed by affluent Westerners to affluent Westerners—and Indians, ironically, are marginally represented, if at all."[15]

The Welsh author

#yogaeverydamnday #beagoddess)."[16]

Themes

Further information: Yoga and cultural appropriation
fast food restaurant chain's advertisements have sexually objectified women doing yoga.[10]

The

Upward Dog pose confides to her friend that her husband wants her to "get great buns". Blaine explains that this is a pun on the firm's hamburger buns and a slang word for buttocks; this is emphasized by a close-up shot of the women's buttocks, now in Downward Dog, which Blaine describes as objectifying the female body.[10]

The

Tree Pose and other asanas, with a voiceover telling women "If you want a toned tummy and legs like a Victoria's Secret model, try the Downward Dog". Blaine comments that the marketing is offering "self-transformation through physical, not spiritual, change".[10]

A different approach was taken by

lotus pose, with the caption "And now the only thing I've left behind is stress". Commenting on the sexism implicit in the scene, Blaine states that "Corporate America increasingly co-opts yoga to keep its army of workers working".[10]

References

  1. ^ a b Baitmangalkar, Arundhati. "How We Can Work Together to Avoid Cultural Appropriation in Yoga". Yoga International. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  2. OCLC 290552174
    .
  3. doi:10.7825/2164-6279.1510
    .
  4. OCLC 878953765
    .
  5. ^ a b c McLellan, Lea (28 January 2015). "Yoga in Advertising: Taking a Bite of the Yoga Pie". Yoga Basics. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  6. ^ Jain 2015, pp. 73–94 "Branding Yoga".
  7. ^ Jain 2015, p. 96.
  8. ^ Mullins, Daya. "Yoga and Yoga Therapy in Germany Today" (PDF). Weg Der Mitte. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  9. ^ "Using The Yoga Alliance Professionals Logo". Yoga Alliance. 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  10. ^
    ISBN 9781498528030
    .
  11. ^ Hodges, Julie (2007). The Practice of Iyengar Yoga by Mid-Aged Women: An Ancient Tradition in a Modern Life (PDF) (PhD thesis). Newcastle, New South Wales: University of Newcastle. pp. 66–67. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  12. doi:10.1163/157342107X207209
    .
  13. ^ Lane, Megan (9 October 2003). "The Tyranny of Yoga". BBC News. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  14. ^ Davidson, John (27 May 2014). "Not bending over backwards for a Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga". Financial Review. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  15. ^ Deshpande, Rina (1 May 2019). "What's the Difference Between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Appreciation?". Yoga Journal. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  16. ^ a b Williams, Holly (29 November 2015). "The great hippie hijack: how consumerism devoured the counterculture dream". The Independent. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
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