PRESS RELEASE: Berghaus to promote diversity, inclusion and mental health with new ambassadors

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 UKC/UKH Gear 26 Feb 2021

Berghaus has confirmed details of four new brand ambassadors. The company has added Rhiane Fatinikun, Zahrah Mahmood, Ed Jackson and Iona Rendall to its team. All have been working with Berghaus for some time, but have now officially joined athletes that include Sir Chris Bonington, Mick Fowler, Leo Houlding and Anna Taylor.



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 99ster 26 Feb 2021
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

Yawn.  Yet more vacuous marketing driven virtue signalling.  Congratulations.

69
 TobyA 26 Feb 2021
In reply to 99ster:

Yep - company supports some people who are promoting outdoor sports for health and wellbeing, particularly in groups who traditionally, for whatever reasons, haven't been involved in outdoor sports so much. At the same time, said company gets some good marketing coverage, and maybe sells some more waterproof coats to folks doing said outdoor sports, allowing them to make some profit, stay in business, pay some taxes and employ some people.

Outrageous innit? 

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 Theo Moore 26 Feb 2021
In reply to 99ster:

I understand how a company talking about inclusion and diversity without doing anything could be viewed cynically.

However, that's far from what Berghaus are doing here. They're actually working with people who actively promote those values, with initiatives like Black Girls Hike, Hillwalking Hijabi, Millimetres to Mountains Foundation and mental health groups. In turn, they're supporting those initiatives and the good work they do - that's a far cry from 'virtue signalling'. Simply shouting down people who are attempting to do good work with simplistic labels could discourage them from doing that good work and is really counter-productive.

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 Robert Durran 26 Feb 2021
In reply to TobyA

> Outrageous innit? 

Absolutely. Far more concerning is describing Chris Bonington as an "athlete". Truly outrageous.

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 TobyA 26 Feb 2021
In reply to Robert Durran:

I was wondering which would upset you the more Robert, the use of "athlete" or the use of "ambassador"?  

 Robert Durran 26 Feb 2021
In reply to TobyA:

Normally I would find both terms equally offensive, but I can forgive Berghaus anything because of this:

youtube.com/watch?v=F7b96bQfnjE&

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 TobyA 26 Feb 2021
In reply to Robert Durran:

Absolutely, but I am a bit worried about the lack of diversity in the XT-Snowhoe world. What is the extreme snowshoe community doing to attract people from marginalised communites to sport? Beyond the admittedly quite marginal Geordies and Cumbrians obviously...  

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 Robert Durran 26 Feb 2021
In reply to TobyA:

> Absolutely, but I am a bit worried about the lack of diversity in the XT-Snowhoe world. What is the extreme snowshoe community doing to attract people from marginalised communites to sport? Beyond the admittedly quite marginal Geordies and Cumbrians obviously...  

Hopefully they'll do a remake featuring their new and diverse ambassathletes.

1
 olddirtydoggy 26 Feb 2021
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

In other news, Hasbro has dropped the 'Mr' from the Toy story character, Mr potato head as they want to present him/her/them as gender neutral.

Didn't he have a Mrs potato head in the second film? Wonder what we call her/him/them now?

Seriously now, in fairness to the article, I almost typed in my comment before reading it but held back for a moment. I'm first to attack such virtue signalling but these characters are not the usual pro atheletes hitting those high marks the rest of us can only dream of. These are working in the outdoors to help people get out who wouldn't normally so I'm guessing this is why they have the title 'ambassadors'. I'm glad they didn't drag the whole gender debate into it, that's a cheap shot and like some on her, I'd be aiming my keyboard right at them.

There's a market for businesses like Berghaus to exploit. Fleece hijabs? I joke not. If Berghaus can market to the British Muslim population the way that The North Face managed to get the outdoor fashion market then good for them. Good sound business.

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 rj_townsend 26 Feb 2021
In reply to 99ster:

> Yawn.  Yet more vacuous marketing driven virtue signalling.  Congratulations.

I do feel it's rather clumsy message from Berghaus. Promoting diversity is the right thing to do, but "New brand ambassadors" is the story - the fact that they're more diverse becomes self-evident without needing to be stated. Explicitly highlighting the diversity feels counterproductive, suggesting the athletes were selected more for their demographics than their achievements and abilities: I wonder how they feel about that?

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 olddirtydoggy 26 Feb 2021
In reply to rj_townsend:

I'd suggest that these persons were chosen due to the work they do in their fields of diversity rather than sporting achievements. Admirable characters for different reasons.

Berghaus is a business and it's just trying to tap into an emerging market.

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 rj_townsend 26 Feb 2021
In reply to olddirtydoggy:

> I'd suggest that these persons were chosen due to the work they do in their fields of diversity rather than sporting achievements. Admirable characters for different reasons.

> Berghaus is a business and it's just trying to tap into an emerging market.

That’s a fair point - I think you’re right. My gut feel is that the diversity message is better delivered by gradually becoming the norm rather than headlines of “look at us, we’re diverse”, which just feels a bit too needy. I don’t disagree at all with what they’re doing, just the somewhat amateur way they’ve delivered the message here.

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 Chris_Mellor 26 Feb 2021
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

It's just the usual big business marketing innit, with virtue signalling, a few quid chucked diversity's way and vacuous marketing crap like calling that very fine gentleman Chris Bonnington an athlete. I know he's fit for his age, and then some, but an athlete? That's marketing for you - know nothing chumps.

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 mrbird 27 Feb 2021
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

For all the recent publicity about inclusion and diversity in the outdoors, I find it interesting that apart from "urban uprising" there is never a peep from companies about helping kids from poor/ deprived areas into the outdoors regardless of their ethnicity, gender or handicap. 

"We love all of you. Unless you're skint and of no use to us."

 J101 27 Feb 2021
In reply to mrbird:

Alpkit foundation?

 leland stamper 27 Feb 2021
In reply to mrbird:

Talking of Urban Uprising a number of companies are supporting it -see UU's website for more info    https://www.urbanuprising.org/our-supporters    but there is always an opportunity for others to make a difference - come on Berghaus!  

 TechnoJim 27 Feb 2021
In reply to olddirtydoggy:

Digressing slightly, but Hasbro are not presenting Mr Potato Head as gender neutral. The brand name for the entire range of toys is just dropping the 'Mr' to become 'Potato Head'. 

Mr Potato Head is and will still be Mr Potato Head. Mrs Potato Head is and will still be Mrs Potato Head.

This has been widely misreported as a cheap way of frothing up some sort of ill-defined 'anti-woke' mild outrage. 

Edit to add this isn't some sort of personal attack directed at you dude! I've been avoiding the news but managed to catch this whole farrago on Radio 4 during a brief run out yesterday.

Post edited at 10:13
 Iamgregp 27 Feb 2021
In reply to rj_townsend:

I get the point you’re making, but then every time there a cabinet reshuffle what do we get trumpeted  at us? “More black and Asian members than ever before, more women than ever before” (which isn’t hard seeing as it always had an over representation of straight white men of a certain age), but then nobody calls that clumsy or amateurish. 

I wonder if we view Berghaus through a different lens as they’re a private company looking to sell us something?  

Like I said I do see the point you’re making and and understand why you would feel that, but I’m genuinely interested as to whether positive discrimination/promotion is viewed differently in the private sector...

 Matt Podd 27 Feb 2021
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

Surely its all about profit for shareholders?

4
 robertmichaellovell Global Crag Moderator 27 Feb 2021
In reply to Matt Podd:

I don’t think profit for shareholders and trying to be a force for good are mutually exclusive. Check out B-Corp, plenty of examples of companies that are doing well in a classic commercial sense as well as trying to do the right thing.

Press releases like this do feel a bit clumsy perhaps, but looking at it another way they are very clearly setting an example and demonstrating values that appear to be important to them. That’s got to be a good thing. 

As someone who is thinking along these kind of lines (I.e. what practical steps can I take that will help with diversity and inclusion) it’ll be great to see where this goes from here.

Post edited at 20:24
 Chris_Mellor 28 Feb 2021

In reply to Blanche DuBois:

I think you may be looking into the mirror of intolerant bigotry there and seeing your own reflection...

4
 olddirtydoggy 28 Feb 2021
In reply to TechnoJim:

> Edit to add this isn't some sort of personal attack directed at you dude! I've been avoiding the news but managed to catch this whole farrago on Radio 4 during a brief run out yesterday.

You're all good, the diversity of opinion on here is something to be celebrated. I only caught the article on the BBC news website the other day but it seems the report you heard on R4 might have fleshed the story out with some updated info. Thanks for the follow up

What I can't be doing with on here is when some start with the name calling and get personal. We've all got our own personal experiences in life and we all get our news from various sources. I've been guilty myself before on here of forgetting there are human beings behind the posts on this fine forum.

 Bog ninja 01 Mar 2021
In reply to olddirtydoggy:

Actually your statement is incorrect, Hasbro has stated that they are retaining the Mr and Mrs Potato Head honorifics for the individual characters but the entire product range is referred to ‘Potato Head’ rather than ‘Mr Potato Head’. 

1
 olddirtydoggy 01 Mar 2021
In reply to Bog ninja:

Yeh I know. The BBC front page broke the story a few days back and didn't reveal those details. It seems they were pulled in by the story and I just repeated here what I read on there. Still, always good to get clarification.

 Dominic Green 10 Mar 2021
In reply to olddirtydoggy:

I've just tuned into this thread a bit late, is mr Potato Head now a Berghaus ambassador too?

 olddirtydoggy 10 Mar 2021
In reply to Dominic Green:

You watch your language! It's Potato head now I'll have you know.

 planetmarshall 10 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

Looks like I'm too late to post the popcorn GIF.

https://media.giphy.com/media/gSRkSblDEjUuk/giphy.gif

In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

Good.


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