Equinox Apologizes for AI Campaign Image, but Not Before Fighting Back

As is often the case, Equinox gets people talking. Its AI-focused ad campaign — launched in January — is still doing so months later, this time over a pulled image that critics said depicted stereotypes about Asian women

Equinox has removed a divisive image from its “Question Everything But Yourself” campaign after months of mounting criticism.

The image, part of a global campaign the luxury fitness and wellness operator launched in January and led by agency Angry Gods, depicted the realistic head of an Asian woman mounted on a stand with a person’s thumb in her mouth. Critics called the image sexualized and dehumanizing, and a Change.org petition noted that the image had been on display at several Equinox locations, including a New York City gym and on its social media channels. 

The petition called for Equinox to remove the image and explain why it was used and remained in place despite ongoing complaints. 

The criticism was not new. As early as the campaign’s first weeks, threads on Reddit’s Asian American community forums flagged the image, with commenters questioning how the creative cleared internal review and asserting that it drew on “techno-orientalism” — a critique that Asians (typically women) are repeatedly depicted in media as hyper-technologized and, therefore, dehumanized.

Redditors noted that the other images in the same campaign, featuring people of different genders and backgrounds, showed subjects working out or posing normally, while only the Asian woman’s image isolated and objectified her. 

Communications expert Eila Park Robertson also took issue with the image, sharing her thoughts on social media.

More broadly, the initial reaction to the campaign was mixed, with numerous comments on Equinox’s social media channels questioning the execution and tone of its message. Other imagery from the campaign depicted Pope Francis in a puffer coat, a woman with three breasts and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on a stripper pole.

In one video, Robertson tied the image to the fetishization of Asian women, calling it a well-documented fixation in pornography.

“The reductive sexualization of Asian women has allowed militaries, governments, organizations to have and sell Asian women as comfort women,” she said in a clip. “They’re not comforting anyone but the men. It was a tool, a propaganda tool, to be able to justify sexual slavery.”

In a statement to CNN responding to questions about the campaign and Robertson’s criticism, an Equinox spokesperson accused Robertson of manufacturing outrage “for clicks” and imposing what it called a salacious interpretation of the work and “intentionally ignoring” its full context.

The luxury fitness brand maintains the campaign was built to examine the false realities produced by AI and social media, including, as it pointed out, “fake leaders, fake bodies, fake food and fake robots.”

“While that was the creative goal, we recognize there was an unintended impact, and we apologize for that,” an Equinox spokesperson told Athletech News. “We made the decision more than a week ago to fully remove the image – a choice guided by our core values of inclusivity, mutual respect and empathy, which ensure the Equinox community is a place where everyone is welcome.”

For what it’s worth, Equinox has long made a name for itself not just for cold eucalyptus towels, but for its provocative campaign decisions.

The upscale fitness operator turned away prospective members on Jan. 1, 2023 to protest short-term resolutions and, in 2016, its “Commit to Something” campaign also sparked outrage with a series of seven images including one showing model Lydia Hearst breastfeeding twins in a restaurant.