Like most teenage boys who grew up in the 1980’s, I wanted to be muscular and shredded. My go to example? Sylvester Stallone in the 1985 movie Rocky IV. I challenge you to watch those training montages and not want to lift weights! But achieving that goal would have required me to do two things:
- Improve my diet.
- Lift a lot of weights.
Well…I did neither. My diet stayed the same and I never joined a gym.
There were many reasons for my inaction (lazy being one). But in this blog post, I’m only going to focus on one. The high cost of gym membership.
That’s too much
You see, back then, joining a gym was pretty damn expensive. Membership fees were AT LEAST $30 per month. That is almost $70 in today’s dollars! I had no realistic options, until…
Lefty came to the rescue, sort of…
Because of that reality, a local cop in my town decided to create an alternative.
“Lefty” (that was the cop’s nickname) converted his home’s basement into a gym. It was nothing fancy, but it was at least cheaper.
Lefty charged $20 per month. Cash or check only. I’m not even sure if what he did was actually legal. But hey…no one was complaining.
But even with that reduced cost, it still wasn’t dirt cheap by any means. Adjusting for inflation, $20 in 1987 is the equivalent to $45 today. Still too much for many people, including me.
As great as Lefty’s idea was, it was nothing more than a drop in the bucket. His small basement could only fit so many people!
Corporate gyms answered the call
But over the next thirty years the gym world slowly evolved. We now see many large, corporate gyms with locations throughout the country. And their focus is on the masses (“the public”)—as opposed to a relatively small group like serious bodybuilders.
Planet Fitness is one of them
Take Planet Fitness for example (I’m a member). They have high quality gyms with very low membership fees—$10 per month. In 1987 dollars, that would have been $4 per month!
That’s pretty impressive. At this low cost, way more people have access to a quality gym today than they did in the 1980’s.
More access = increased fitness = better health = improved public health.
Profit is not a dirty word
If these same results were achieved by a government program, law, regulation or subsidy, it would have been chalked up and celebrated as a great public health achievement. But no such label is attached to places like Planet Fitness. Why?
One reason.
Planet Fitness is a FOR PROFIT corporation.
For too many people, pursuing profits means you don’t care about actual human beings. We’ve all heard the common mantra, “People before profits”.
Well…if I could borrow Joe Biden’s words for a second here I would like to say, “That’s a bunch of malarkey!”
Our dental world is no exception
This same perverse attitude plays out in our dental world too.
We all learned about water fluoridation in dental and dental hygiene school. We all learned that it significantly reduced the caries rate. And we all learned that it is one of the top ten public health achievements according to the CDC. All of that is true, but…
Water fluoridation is primarily implemented by governments you see, so applauding them is okay and highly encouraged. Their achievements are well known.
FOR PROFIT corporations’ achievements are largely ignored
Here are two examples of FOR PROFIT corporations achieving great public health results that failed to make any CDC list.
Pepsodent Toothpaste
A famous “ad man” named Claude Hopkins from the early 1900’s created a national marketing campaign for Pepsodent toothpaste. Before that campaign, only 7% of Americans brushed daily. Brushing your teeth every day just wasn’t a “thing” back then.
But within ten years of his campaign, 65% of Americans were brushing daily! Thanks to Claude Hopkins, the American public adopted the habit of brushing daily that still exists today.
I couldn’t find this great story on the CDC website.
Crest Fluoridated Toothpaste
Proctor & Gamble (owner of Crest) spent millions on research to develop a therapeutic toothpaste (to prevent cavities) in the 1950’s. Early studies showed an almost 50% reduction in the caries rate.
In 1960, Crest was accepted by the American Dental Association as a proven toothpaste (the only one back then) that prevented cavities. Crest went on to dominate the market for decades.
“In 1976, the American Chemical Society [a private organization] recognized Crest with fluoride as one of the 100 greatest discoveries of the previous 100 years.” (1)
I couldn’t find this great story on the CDC website either.
My thank you to FOR PROFIT corporations
FOR PROFIT corporations deserve praise for improving public health, but unfortunately, they rarely receive it. I don’t work for the CDC, or any other government agency, so the best I can do here is to say this.
I see what you do and I greatly appreciate it. Thank you very much.
If you have any questions or comments, I’ll be at Planet Fitness tomorrow morning enjoying a great service. A service that’s rarely recognized for what it is. Public health.
References
1. https://www.invent.org/blog/inventors/new-inductee-class-Muhler-Nebergall