Madonna is no stranger when it comes to bizarre business ventures. Whether she’s promoting Kabbalah propaganda disguised as children’s books, hawking a line of bargain bin perfume named after her 1991 documentary Truth or Dare, or releasing a Japanese skincare line inspired by her 2012 album MDNA, she’ll try anything if she thinks it’ll make her a buck.
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In 2010, the Queen of Pop launched a fitness franchise called Hard Candy Fitness, named after her 2008 album Hard Candy. Gyms were opened in cities around the world, including Berlin, Mexico City, Sydney and Toronto, among others. Each one features colorful disco balls, non-stop EDM music videos, and oversized pictures of Madonna everywhere. In the lobby. In the hall. In the locker room. In the weight room. In the cardio room. In the yoga studio. In the bathroom. Everywhere you turn, there’s Madonna, watching you, judging you.
But it looks like the party is ending at one of the locations. Fitness fanatics in Canada, it seems, have had enough of the 57-year-old chanteuse staring down at them while they’re doing squats and bicep curls. Because Leonard Schlemm, the owner of the 42,000-sq-ft gym in downtown Toronto, says he’s rebranding. Immediately.
“Madonna was fabulous,” he tells Torontoist.
Not fabulous enough, however, to make people pay $100 a month plus a $69 “administrative fee,” or $28 for a day pass, to hang out at her gym. Schlemm says dwindling memberships, a lack of support from the franchise and the fact that people couldn’t seem to wrap their heads around the concept of a Madonna-themed fitness center have all played into his decision to rebrand.
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“People couldn’t figure out where Hard Candy was and then they were turned off by the brand because they thought it was a dance studio,” he says.
We’re sure negative Yelp reviews accusing the club of being too loud, having crappy customer service, charging stiff cancellation fees and being “much like its founder, Madonna … highly over-rated, pretty on the outside, but low on substance” also didn’t help.
Oh, and then there was the issue of people, often tourists, constantly coming in and taking selfies next to the giant pictures of Madonna and then leaving.
“We are in the business of providing fitness to people who want to be in shape,” Schlemm adds. “We aren’t a destination for you to come and take a selfie.”
So, he says, he’s closing Hard Candy this weekend and reopening on Monday as Aura Fitness. He says it will be “one of the nicest [clubs] in the world.”
“If I had to pick a place to workout in for myself,” he says, “I’d choose this one.”
While the overall look of the gym won’t change too drastically, the makeover does mean the giant pictures of Madonna, every single one of them, will be ripped down.
We sure she’s going to be just devastated.
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joeyty
Those big faces watching you are too Orwell.
hyhybt
Seems like the appeal would grow old quickly for allbut the most obsessive fans. It also seems like that’s obvious enough that it should have been planned as a temporary thing in the first place.
Rob91316
“Everywhere you turn, there’s Madonna, watching you, judging you…” Perhaps, but what better way to stay motivated than to have the most famously fit human on planet Earth staring you down to make sure you pump out that extra curl, that extra sit-up, that extra 5 minutes on the treadmill? Beyond that, Madonna has “Hard Candy” clubs around the world that continue to keep her coffers filled, and I doubt she is shedding a single tear over losing the one in “the fascist state of Toronto,” as she famously termed it in “Truth or Dare.”
poppupz
It was just a matter of time. Am waiting to find out who she copies and plagiarizes next for that arty look she wants everyone and their dead mother to admire as.
DCguy
@Rob91316:
Sorry, straight male gym goers are not going to be inspired by a bunch of huge Warhol inspired prints of Madonna.
As for the gym owner. I love that he is shutting down for 2 days and claiming it will be the best gym in the world when he reopens.
2 days? What’s he going to do, paint a wall and vacuum?
bottom250
Ohhhh such a shame. This is so wrong.
Brian
Madonna’s image should be put in a museum for 80’s relics. It worked for a while but that was because we did not know better.
AtticusBennett
to add to it, the building complex that houses Hard Candy fitness in toronto has been a DISASTER all around.
there was an article on it a few months ago – it’s been a complete disaster for all involved.
http://www.thestar.com/business/2016/01/07/businesses-in-ghost-town-condo-mall-suing-developer-canderel-residential.html
Stache
Madonna looks good now because of extensive plastic surgery. If this was a surgical place then yes her pics would make sense.
Evji108
Seems like they overbranded it with Madonna. It is not necessary to have enormous ancient photos of her plastered everywhere to use her brand. It comes off as obsessive and creepy. Straight guys, most women and many gay guys would be put off by this design.
dean089
Poor old hag.
Stache
@dean089: Not sure what your definition of “poor old hag” is but she’s worth a fortune, has a hot young boyfriend and still doing sold out and huge concerts.
Stache
@dean089: That and she looks amazing.
Stache
@dean089: You know no one says that about the rolling stones. Insulting her like that makes you sound like an ageist misogynistic douchebag.
DCguy
@Stache:
Actually people say that all the time about the Rolling Stones.
Curtispsf
@Stache: The Rolling Stones ARE poor old hags….no make that RICH old hags. But they are still able to rock out and make some tremendous music. Plus, everyone wants to catch a glimpse of Walking Dead star Keith Richards (who btw, bangs out some great rhythm guitar licks).
Wooly
Oh shucks, I was thinking of joining. I remember the day it opened; the local news channel did a feature on it. They showed a guy in high heels leading some kind of fitness dance class. Oh yeah, that would really make me run out to join.
Ade
Reading some of the comments, I must say, I am ASHAMED OF YOU.
1- If you thought that we fought homophobia to replace it with ageism, you are wrong! it disgusts me when the “nouvelle gays” show they have become the bullies! Shame on you!
2- Remember our recent history: this is the woman who stood up for us when virtually everybody else kept silent, when it was not convenient to do so (like nowadays). And did it big time.
As a gay man who got beaten up at the time, and who knows what it meant to have a woman like her on our side, to see these idiots forgetting our own RECENT history, and to become like the bullies we fought against, and so SHALLOW that all they can say about a person is “old”, it disgusts me.
Grow a few brain cells and learn at least our recent history. And do not, I repeat, do not, make all the work we did, the beatings WE took for your freedom end up in vain. We didn’t want to create a Frankenstein when we (with Madonna) fought for YOUR rights.
Now go back to your rooms and do your homework!
Stache
@DCguy: @Curtispsf: Ha. Yeah, I could’ve picked a better example. Someone like Bruce Springsteen then. I’m pretty sure no one’s calling him a poor/rich old hag and he’s 10 years older then Madonna.
Gigi Gee
@AtticusBennett: I had no idea those shops existed and I’m in the area all the time.
seaguy
She is moving on to other ventures. Hard Candy was like two albums ago anyway.
He BGB
So is there not one in the U.S.? That’s telling. She thought putting them in other countries they would be more likely to fall for it but Toronto is just a short ride from the US. Berlin, maybe.
batesmotel
A gym is a gym. No one wants to work out at Hard Candy for the following reasons:
(1) No one has heard of it or even knows “Hard Candy” is a gym
(2) There are only a few locations
(3) It’s extremely expensive.