Duncan McCallum, Action man

SINCE the adoption of the word 'extreme' by sports marketers back in the mid-1990s, every naff product wishing to be associated with mountain and street sports has used the word. Anything from ghastly energy drinks to razor blades has ridden on the back of images nicked from these sports.

In the US, and now I hope Europe, there is a backlash from mountain and street sports practitioners against the "rad-icalisation" of the activities they hold dear. The mainstream media is full of climbing and mountaineering images, used to sell everything from financial services, beauty and male grooming products to flatbed trucks, they think will appeal to young, trendy lifestyle people, whoever they are.

Almost weekly I'm asked what is the most extreme thing I have done. "Wow, you're an extreme sports person." I really hope not.

Dave MacLeod, a Scot, is arguably the current best all-round climber in the world. He is far from extreme: on his most difficult routes, he is never working at the "highest" level of intensity, he doesn't take unreasonable measures and he does not seek out life-threatening experiences – Dave would describe them as "life-enhancing". Dave and people on the cutting edge of mountain sport do not seek out death. They are cool and very, very measured.

The cutting-edge, big-mountain boarder Xavier de Le Rue, from France, boards regularly on the steepest faces that Chamonix has to offer. Glen Plake, the inventor of modern big-mountain skiing, equally tests conditions, hones his skills and watches the weather and temperature fastidiously. They do exceptional things, inspiring things, but they don't take unreasonable risks.

Even the word "adventure", in the sense of risk, is overused. Yvon Chouinard, the founder of outdoor equipment supplier Patagonia and One Percent For The Planet environmental alliance, said: "It's only adventure when things go wrong."

Words like "extreme" and "rad" have lost their value, been adopted by the marketing mainstream to sell products using images of sports and activities they do not understand. For years companies have done this and given nothing back. And these images of death-defying risk, of untouchable "radical" elitism, also act as barriers to participation by pushing people away from outdoor activities.

We live in a country with a predicted obesity rate of 60 per cent for all UK adults in ten years, with an increasing level of sedentary behaviour. We need investment. We need more outdoor education in schools, more skate parks, mountain bike tracks and facilities generally. We need more and better-funded programmes to encourage our youth into activities that once adopted, remain key life-enhancers for years.

I'm not against brands associating with outdoor and street sports – quite the opposite. But we as consumers must educate those who use images of our activities but don't invest in the qualities they purport to promote.

How do we do this? Don't buy the products. If you know of a company investing in competitions and grass roots activities, buy the phone, the face cream or drink. If not, boycott them.

You may think this is extreme. I don't. If predictions are right, we'll soon be so unfit the only images of active people you might be left with will be of me. And you don't want that.

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday, May 9, 2010