About

Wii Fit Girl is the nickname of Lauren Bernat, an advertising account executive who appeared in a video performing hula hoop motions on a Nintendo Wii Fit while wearing a t-shirt and underwear. The video's viral success was covered by many news outlets and inspired a number of reenactments and parody videos on YouTube.

Origin

On May 25th, 2008, a video titled "Why every guy should buy their girlfriend Wii Fit" was uploaded to YouTube by Bernat's boyfriend Giovanny Gutierrez, in which Bernat could be seen gyrating in her underwear while playing a game with the Nintendo Wii Fit controller. Within four years, the video amassed over 11.8 million views.

Spread

On May 27th, 2008, a link to the video was submitted to the the social news site Digg^[9], which received over 12,850 up votes within four years. On May 29th, Bernat registered the domain for her personal site LaurenBernat.com^[3], which included a "Wii Fit Journal" section with blog posts related to the video. On June 10th, The Telegraph^[2] published an article titled "Wii Fit underwear girl is YouTube sensation", which included an interview with Gutierrez who claimed Bernat was "furious" when she discovered the video on YouTube. On June 11th, the Miami Herald^[5] published an article titled “Wii Workout Video Makes Miami Woman Famous”, reporting that the video had accumulated over two million views at the time. On July 16th, the web series Pop17 outlined the online spread of the video in an episode titled "Internet Meme: Why Every Guy Should Buy Their Girlfriend a Wii Fit."

On March 17th, 2009, the video game news site VGA24/7^[10] published an article reporting that Bernat had been hired by EA Sports as a spokesperson. On May 8th, 2009, the gaming blog Kotaku^[6] published an article titled "Nearly a Year Later, New Wii Fit Girl Sets Trap", which included a parody video of a man in a wig playing the Wii Fit while wearing a pair of panties (shown below).

On April 13th, 2011, Bernat became the host of the weekly video podcast Chat Chow TV (shown below), which documented various food industry professionals in Florida.

Media Appearances

On September 17th, Bernat and Gutierrez appeared in an episode of The Tyra Banks Show, in which Gutierrez performed a hula hoop dance in his underwear as “payback.” On December 12th, Bernat re-enacted the video at the Spike TV Video Game Awards during a live music performance by the rock band The Bravery (shown below, left). On January 20th, 2010, Bernat appeared in an episode of the viral video commentary television show Tosh.0, in which the host Daniel Tosh ordered Bernat to “show me your butt” during the Web Redemption segment. (shown below, right).

Controversy

The video was suspected of being a Nintendo viral marketing campaign when it was discovered that both Bernat and Gutierrez were employed by an advertising agency. A Cnet^[7] article from June 18th, 2008, reported that both Nintendo and the couple denied the allegations and that Gutierrez claimed he just wanted to show the world his attractive girlfriend.

Notable Examples

Several copycat and parody videos emerged on YouTube of other women and men playing the Wii Fit in their underwear.

Search Interest

External References