New 'skinny' Chris Hemsworth ad pokes fun at the users of his own Centr workout app

Chris Hemsworth is featured in the new Centr App ad working out with himself, talking to himself and riding the back of his character's mum like she was a horse. No, Chris Hemsworth hasn't lost his marbles, the ad merely replaces the actors' heads with Chris', digitally, while he makes comments you'd most likely hear from the mouths of people who use the Centr app. The problem is, the ad makes fun of these people, who are probably the main source of income for the Centr team.

I'll be honest: I like the Centr app. In my Centr review, I praised the app for offering a wide variety of workouts and for making it easy to create food shopping lists, among other things. The Centr app offers a combination of diet, workout, mindfulness exercises which in fact can help establish and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Centr can also be used to help building muscle but admittedly, it's not the main appeal for most.

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The reality is, most people will download and use the app because they like the way Chris Hemsworth looks, as even the ad points out at the beginning. You might think that Chris is mainly an actor but in my opinion, he is one of the most successful Instagram influencers. He elevated the 'I look good and you will too if you use my app'  game to a whole new level by coming up with the Centr app together with his team of personal trainers, chefs and mindfulness experts.

And despite the effort to make the Centr app successful on its own terms, it's still very much successful because Chris Hemsworth is successful. And not just successful in general, but successful in looking good. He is getting more ripped for any subsequent role he takes on: he put on serious amounts of muscle mass (opens in new tab) to portray a young Hulk Hogan in an upcoming Netflix biopic.

Just like anybody else, I relish myself looking at Chris' physical development. He puts in the effort and works out all the time, probably eats right and generally looks after himself, which is admirable. He's got the resources to retain PTs and chefs to make these body transformations possible. This doesn't take away from the results but let's face it, the average Centr user is not Chris Hemsworth.

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The new Centr ad does a great job in depicting said average user: the people who aren't serious enough about physical development to hire a PT but feel a bit uncomfortable in their skin. They don't have a six pack or bulging biceps; Centr users aren't fully versed in the ways of effective muscle building or how to use protein powder correctly. These people will download the Centr app because they either fancy Chris Hemsworth or want a body like him.

The truth is, building and maintaining muscle mass is hard. It requires dedication and the relentless pursuit of gains. Dabbling with a half an hour Centr Unleashed session a day won't get you ripped. Whisking up a delicious kale, lentil and roasted beet salad once a week won't help you improve muscle protein synthesis. Part time fitness will only ever get you half results.

And there is wrong with that. Not being obscenely muscular doesn't mean you aren't healthy. Everybody can get muscular but not everyone should. Having some fat around your torso won't necessarily make you die early. Not being able to bench press 200 lbs (100kg) won't make you weakling. Using the Centr app because you kind of want to look like Chris but without fully committing to the idea of muscle building is also fine.

I appreciate that even the ad addresses the elephant in the room, right at the end: "You don't have to be Chris to get results. You just need his team", and that's all great but it's not his team's heads superimposed on the actors bodies, it's his. Even these two sentences say 'Chris' and 'his'.

I wish the Centr team appreciated their target audience and their efforts a bit more and as opposed to making fun of them, they addressed the work they put in to get a little bit more healthy. Maybe in the next Centr ad, they should create a compilation of the thousands of screenshots people post online about their Centr workouts. The little successes that keep people going. That would be a better tribute to the average Centr user.