A gymnasium that caused controversy by using a picture of a Nazi concentration camp in an advertisement has attracted fresh criticism with its latest campaign.
The Middle Finger Campaign, which offers a week of free training to tackle the "obesity epidemic in Dubai", is causing outrage on social-media websites, with UAE residents calling it offensive.
The gym, which has three locations in Dubai - Al Quoz, the Meadows and Silicon Oasis - uses an image of an overweight woman giving the middle fingers to a McDonald's sign.
"It's just controversial marketing that's gotten out of hand, really loses their message which is sad," said one tweet.
Another comment on Twitter said: "Showing the middle finger gets you prison and deported!"
Phil Parkinson, the owner of the gym, said the campaign was "not intended to offend anyone".
Mr Parkinson said he had hoped people would see the gesture was "pointed firmly" at fast-food companies, which he said were "murdering people".
"Obesity is something that is really, really affecting Dubai," he said. "It's around 40 per cent here. People need to understand that fast food is killing them."
But the fitness trainer has now made sure the two fingers in the image have been pixellated to avoid further outcry.
In January, the gym used a black-and-white image of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp with the slogan: "Kiss your calories goodbye."
The image, which was one of 10 used as part of an online campaign, incited protests on Twitter and Facebook, prompting Mr Parkinson to remove them and apologise.
The current campaign, which runs under the slogan "Enough is Enough", tells its Facebook followers that "obesity ends more lives and creates more suffering than anything else on the planet", while asking people to help "rid Dubai of this monster".
The campaign does have some fans. The Lebanese expatriate Feras Barakat, 24, who has lost 13 kilograms since he started at the gym in April, said the campaign was excellent as too many people were addicted to junk food.
"It's like an awareness campaign about how bad it is for you and that it is harming us. That's the picture he wants us to see," said Mr Barakat.
He said Mr Parkinson was known for his strong words.
"We all know what he's like but we take it in a fun way," Mr Barakat said. "We don't get offended at all."
molson@thenational.ae
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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