As usual, Equinox’s new ad campaign loans controversy

For the third year in a row Equinox gym brought in famed (and controversial) fashion photographer Terry Richardson to shoot it’s ad campaign. If you live in a big city (think New York or Los Angeles), you have probably seen the provocative  images that resulted  — if not you will soon.

The ads are hard to miss. In them, barely clothed models climb stairs, play pool or get in on the “action.” All with the tag line, “By Equinox,” (and curiously often in stilettos).

Each year, the luxury fitness club gets a bad rap for being too provocative and for putting out ads that have little to do with working-out. The gym, which has 58-locations, has argued that the service they loan is as much about life as it is about hard-core fitness. The body you get by working out with Equinox, the campaign suggests, loans you an exciting life. Gym Business Loans .

Since storming the gym scene in the early 2000s, Equinox has used high prices, luxury goods and fancy post-work out snacks to carve out a high-net worth niche. Even if not every member is well-heeled this ad campaign shows that Equinox doesn’t mind your thinking they are.