Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Why TV sucks: Part four
Diet commercials. It seems impossible to escape them whenever one ventures into the world of TV land. I saw this one the other day, and only caught the end of it when Hungry, a furry little monster...thing, got its head caught in some sort of glass. Now if women can't understand that they could all lose weight (and therefore be happy) after seeing this obnoxious little gimmick, then is there any hope at all?
Judgesnineteen over at Girly Thoughts wrote a good post about this topic earlier in the year.
Random thought: The choice of using the phrase Stop Dieting. Start Living. in this commercial is interesting to me. It's like Weight Watchers is admitting that dieting is not a way to live. But really, this company is playing to the same insecurities, and uses the same tactics ("conquering" those pesky urges...like eating, etc.) as other "diets." So why the distinction? And if Weight Watchers realizes those things are bad, then why are they in the business of making women feel horrible about themselves?
Also, I just ate a chocolate muffin. Does that mean Hungry was here? Did I miss that little orange thing?
Other parts in this serious: One. Two. Three.
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2 comments:
My mom works part-time for Weight Watchers and she's always said that it's more about consciously making healthy choices and creating a healthy lifestyle as opposed to dieting, but I suppose it's easier to sell curbing immediate hunger urges than a lifestyle. Another thing about Weight Watchers - your goal weight has to be within the "healthy" BMI range - so she's said that she's seen people at a healthy weight who haven't made the set goal within the BMI range pushed to lose more weight (unless they have doctor's approval). I find that kind of ridiculous, personally.
My dad also works part-time for wieght watchers (after losing 130lbs with them) and so I've heard about alot and actually attempted the program once. The point they are trying to make about 'stop dieting and start living' is that WW isn't about going cold turkey on all the food you love, but it's about cutting back on the food you love. You can still eat everything you always have, but the idea is monitoring how much of it you eat. I don't seen anything in that commercial which would make anyone feel horrible about themselves. Instead it;s an advertisement for a prgram which emphasizes healthy choices and , gasp, moderation! A good principle for anything in life. The fact is that people all over the country deal with eating issues and weight issues and commercials like this aren't playing on anybodys "insecurities", but it is offering sensible help in order to make people healthy.
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