A Terrible Idea

One of the better tri shops in the NYC area is currently running this ad. It baffles me in many ways.

Are they saying that the flag graphic is an obscure chart representing the U.S. population? If so, it implies that more people are obese than know how to spell "triathlon." I'd wager there's a lot more people with terrible spelling than those who are overweight. Taking it a step further, while I'm sure there are lots of obese people, I'm also sure that some of them know how to spell triathlon. And what about non-obese people that can spell triathlon? Where are they represented?

I'm also not sure what people who "don't know where Iraq is" has to do with obesity and spelling. And again, I'm willing to bet some of those people who can't spell also can't read a map. There's a lot of potential overlap here.

Lastly, if that flag represents the entire U.S. population, there should be a lot fewer stars.

I really wonder if this is scientifically valid. Where's the margin of error? Who conducted this study? Probably a bunch of triathletes.

Even beyond the graphic, I'm more than a little horrified. Can you imagine more triathletes? Aren't there enough egotistical, selfish jerks running around? We need more people focused on "A" races, lycra, and purchasing things like this?

Ugh. I guess people might be thinner. But we'd sure be a lot less productive as a society.