Premium yoga-and-activewear manufacturer Lululemon has a new shopping bag design that’s proving not to be everyone’s cup (bag?) of tea:
In late October, the company began using shopping bags with the words “Who is John Galt?” a catchphrase from the 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, which rails against government and advocates self-interest as a key ingredient of a better world.
The company also added the book to its staff reading list.
In recent years more companies have taken philosophical stands in their marketing, but most embrace charitable and community-oriented causes, rather than Rand’s every-man-for-himself point of view.
I think it’s a pretty cool bag, as bags go, but the reference to Atlas Shrugged put a tantric twist in the body, mind, emotions, spirit and panties of some of Lululemon’s more socialist-leaning customers:
“It’s a clash with yoga values,” said Sarah Kurchak, 29, who has about 15 pieces of Lululemon clothing in her wardrobe.
I could be wrong, but owning 15 pairs of $100 yoga pants and hoodies just might be the old telltale sign that the “Clashing With Yoga Values” train has already left the station. Come to the dark side… we’ve got spandex…
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unrepentant old hippie 
Come to the dark side… we’ve got spandex…
hahahahaha
And cookies, we’ve got cookies too. Every chocolate chip for itself!
if I recruit someone, do I get a toaster oven?
“who is John Galt?”
He’s the guy who founded Guelph, Ontario!
or are they referring to the selfish douchebag protagonist of Ayn Rand’s fairytale
Bah, I really need to brush up my html
John Galt
fairytale
This is all too hilarious for me. I remember BNN long ago did this piece on Lululemon’s founder, and at the time, it was all painted as some sort of ethereal, forward looking man who just wanted to create business that fostered a “different culture.” No sooner than halfway through, it was revealed that a lot of this rhetoric was to get the young yoga instructors on board by becoming “ambassadors” for their products. It never clicked into the interviewer that this was a naked marketing ploy that would get suburban mothers feeling good about themselves in their topsy turvy neo-pagan sensibilites whilst purchasing expensive spandex.
That was the key to the financial success of this company. Is it any wonder that they would massage that thinly veiled egocentrism by hawking Randian boilerplate? I would say it was brilliant if it weren’t for the depressing observation that Lululemon thinks its customers are so vacuous and intellectually malleable that they would go from talks of spiritualism and communitarianism to celebrations of the ego and individual.
Isn’t there actually a town called Galt up there? IIRC, the broader area is sometimes referred to as “Galt/Guelph”.
Galt is the old part of Cambridge, Ontario.
Aha. I knew there was something out that way called “Galt”. Thx