I nearly spit out my drink laughing when the fluffy pom pom part came on.

I had the rhythm n' ribbons set. Ugh.

Are those batons even metal?! How could you twirl with plastic batons, with pom-poms at the ends, no less? I can't imagine you could throw them very high. I much prefer my *real* batons, thank you.

Oh dear god, I had completely forgotten about this and how badly I wanted that rhythm 'n ribbons set. If I could mentally smack my younger self on the head I would, then tell her to wait since as an adult she'll take up firedancing (which I have) since it's a lot more fun and a real workout. :-)

I never actually knew what this was until now- my big sister had a set. Yikes. I think the set of blue and pink pom poms is still in my parents' basement.

haha, WTF. I had a baton like that AND a toy machine gun. I wanted to be a boy, too.

i never saw this set but I did do Jane fonda tapes with my mom and sisters...complete with leotard, tights, headbands and leg warmers. I am still addicted to workout tapes. thanks, mom.

When I wanted this toy as a kid, my mom decided to instead take me to Toys R Us and let me pick out the "real" versions of the accessories included with "Get in Shape, Girl!" as she thought they'd last longer and that I'd get more out of them as a whole.

Metal batons are A LOT stronger than their plastic sisters, lemme tell ya!

The toy batons at the stores were ridiculous! There were the fake metal ones that weren't balanced and had super-thick shafts, and then the plastic ones with glitter in them. These commercials used to drive my mom crazy, not because of the sexism, but because the girls clearly had no idea how to twirl. I imagine that's how rhythmic gymnasts felt about the ribbon sets. The hoop baton didn't look that different from my real one, I have to admit, but if they wanted to really go for it, they should have covered it in sequins and fringe. I'm still pretty mortified that I spent so much of my childhood wearing rhinestones.

Forget the batons. "Get in shape"?? What kind of message is that for a 10 year old?

Oh wow...the entire music and speech sounded like something out of the (annoying) Barbie commercials of today.

When I first started watching this, I was eating. I laughed and practically killed myself on the chocolate fudge I had lodged in my mouth. The commercial was too much for me--Put it on America's Funniest Home Videos XD Just kidding. But seriously, it was so ridiculous, it was funny.

Doesn't even look like a workout, so the title "Get in Shape, Girl" seems (to me) misleading.

Oh god! I had that! I had forgotten all about it! Geez, combine that with a mother who has been on a diet since I could talk and it's no wonder I've got body image issues!

Ah, rhyming "feeling" with "appealing". Brilliant.

I had a set of the "weights" that you could supposedly fill with water to make them heavier. I had completely forgotten about them.

The sexism and admonishments to "get in shape" for kids is really striking, but I also think it's interesting to consider how something like this would play today with all of the news about the "child obesity epidemic" and the rising rates of diabetes in kids. I am generally pretty skeptical of most news having to do with obesity, but since I work in public health, I know that getting kids active and exercising is a big priority for some groups.

I don't think this is the right way to do it -- encouraging fun, active play without concern for body shape/weight/how you look in a leotard is the way to go. Has anyone seen anything equivalent in the past couple of years?

I don't have TV, and don't have kids, and generally avoid advertising as much as I can (so that I don't blow unnecessary brain cells in pure anger), so I wouldn't be likely to see any modern-day equivalent ads...