Legends of Content Marketing originated as a segment in the show Rock Tonight that I produced and starred in for Rock Content. With that show no longer being produced, the good folks at Rock Content have allowed Animation Caffeinated to continue the “Legends of Content Marketing” segment as its own original series.
Legends of Content Marketing explores the rich history of content marketing which actually spans hundreds of years. This series explores some of the greatest examples of the craft such as the Jell-O cookbook, John Deere’s The Furrow, and Florence Nightingale’s pioneering infographics. For our inaugural episode, we take a look at Bob Hoffman’s Strength and Health magazine. Weightlifting is a standard part of any modern fitness regimen. But did you know it was once considered unhealthy?! In the early 20th Century, people believed you could become musclebound: trapped in a personal pectoral prison of preposterous proportions. Enter Bob Hoffman, a man who challenged all of those perceptions with a little help from content marketing.
Legends of Content Marketing: Bob Hoffman
Transcript
Weight lifting. A standard part of any modern fitness regimen was once considered unhealthy! In the early 20th Century, people believed you could become musclebound! Trapped in a personal pectoral prison of preposterous proportions.
Enter Bob Hoffman; a man who challenged all of those perceptions with a little help from content marketing. You see, Bob had an incredible sense of patriotism; even famously trolling Adolf Hitler himself via telegram.
Bob felt America was becoming soft and wouldn’t be able to withstand communist attack. He wanted everyone to get swole, so they could fend off the commies. That’s why he founded Strength and Health magazine, in 1932; a publication that would help spread his gospel of gains.
Shortly after the magazine’s release, he would purchase the bankrupt Milo Bar-Bell Company and switch his successful York Oil Burner business to manufacture barbells instead. Barbells that were marketed heavily, in the magazine and are still manufactured by the York Barbell Company today.
In time, Bob lifted the stigma surrounding weight lifting and it became so popular that York Pennsylvania was dubbed Muscletown USA in 1945. Strength and Health magazine, a publication that helped popularize and-most importantly, normalize, weight lifting, protein supplements, and physical fitness for everyBODY. Just another ONE of the many legends of content marketing.
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