ASICS casts its eye over ‘real women’ marathon runners
19/04/2010
Athletic brand ASICS carried out an exercise it called ‘Live Running Casting’ dueing the 2010 Paris Marathon on April 11. More than 1,500 women from all around the globe— 25% of all the women who took part—had registered to take part in the exercise, in which ASICS set out to choose the face of the spring-summer 2011 collection of its women’s running line, AYAMi, by observing athletes in action.
Located across four Casting Points along the sunny marathon course, an ASICS team of 45 professional photographers took over a thousand photos of the registered runners, all of whom identified themselves by wearing distinctive pink stickers. These pictures will now be handed over to a casting jury the company has set up to choose a winner.
The jury consists of the creative director of an Amsterdam advertising agency, the head of marketing at ASICS, and, as a special guest judge, reigning Olympic marathon champion Constantina Dita, who is just as passionate about fashion as she is about running.
The company insists that the overall winner—to be announced at the end of May—will be selected, not for her looks or figure, but for the “raw emotions and air of purpose she portrayed as she underwent one of Europe’s biggest marathons”. According to ASICS, beauty will never be found inside a make-up bag or through a diet regime; it is found in a woman’s strength, determination and stamina. “No flawless models posing in a beautifully lit studio,” the brand said. “Just real women experiencing a real race.”
The winner will star in an all-expenses paid professional photo shoot this summer, somewhere in Europe. The photos will be used for a multi-media campaign to launch the spring-summer 2011 AYAMi collection in Europe.
The winner, along with four runners-up, will also receive a full set of AYAMi running gear.
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