Fitness Marketing and Neoliberal Notions of the Body Among Young Consumers

This thesis examines how young people interpret fitness marketing in the digital environment and what notions of body, health, performance and personal responsibility emerge in these interpretations. The work focuses on how respondents describe the "right", "attractive" and "healthy" body, how they talk about responsibility for appearance, performance and health and how they reflect on the pressure for self-improvement, discipline and comparison in relation to the content of fitness brands and their ambassadors. The theoretical part is based on the literature on neoliberalism and healthism and on findings on digital visual culture, which allow the interpretation of the findings. The empirical part works with qualitative data from nine semi-structured interviews with respondents aged 21-28, which were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results show that respondents often articulate notions that can be linked to the neoliberalized concept of the body, in particular the emphasis on personal responsibility, discipline and performance. At the same time, however, their statements reveal a selective acceptance of these norms, their negotiation and sometimes even critical questioning, for example in connection with the (un)realism of visual ideals or the assessment of the authenticity and credibility of...