The dash for yoga and similar exercise regimes such as pilates and martial arts was started by celebrities, and has moved into the ad world and the minds of marketers looking for a new way into a hard-to-target group of mostly young consumers.
Women are said to spend as much as 拢670m a year on yoga and other holistic treatments. Yoga classes cost around 拢10 a session for an Astanga class, a favourite with Madonna, Sting and Geri Halliwell.
Madonna most recently showed off her yoga skills in the Gap ads, where she appears alongside Missy Elliot singing her 80s hit 'Get into the Groove'. The ads end as the material girl strikes a "tree" pose as Elliot slips with annoying ease into the splits.
A recent TV ad for Yellow Pages featuring 'Cold Feet' star James Nesbitt showed him trying to impress a new girlfriend by attending a yoga class. Being a typical man, Nesbitt takes the competitive thing a little too far and pushes himself too far, taking him back to Yellow Pages to find a local chiropractor.
Plenty of ads have also used martial arts, including one for Volkswagen Polo, and the BBC has used Brazil's Capoeira dance, which is a mixture of dance and martial arts.
Brewer Anhueser Busch has also used yoga in a US campaign, where two guys take fake legs and a couple of beers to a class with the sole intention of watching the ladies contort their bodies into various postures.
Yoga was again in the spotlight during Channel 4's 'Big Brother 4' when pretty blonde housemate Nush, who had been practicing her moves in the house, was reportedly offered a tantric yoga show on Playboy TV.
The art of yoga is said to have been practised for as long as 5,000 years in India. It really took hold in the UK when stars such as Sting, followed by Madonna and later Geri Halliwell, discovered it.
Halliwell even displayed her talent for the practice on Chris Evan's talkshow 'TFI Friday' and has been pictured in celebrity magazines in poses while on holiday.
Halliwell has gone on to become an advocate of knitting. Julia Roberts, Kate Moss and Winona Ryder are also reported to be fans of the pastime. However, advertisers have yet to weave women's fascination with woolies into their campaigns.
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