ANYONE WANT TO READ AND COMMENT???????????????
Posted by chelseycolbert on April 26, 2008
Hey….i really didn’t get a chance to explain my paper in class because some people got the wrong idea of what i was trying to say. So, here it is, i’ll accept ANY comments (good or bad) (the more the better!)
Chelsey Colbert
April 23, 2006
The Art of Dieting
The society in which Americans live today is one that is overwhelmed in the obsession of beauty. One can see this by the sky-rocketing number of plastic surgeries per year, the multi-billion dollar beauty industry, and the ever changing new weight-loss miracle pill. Americans are obsessed to the point where advertisements for beauty have invaded billboards, televisions, and radios. One popular company that contributes to these advertisements is the Weight-Watchers program. These advertisements may lead one to think that they are beneficial because of the current health state the nation is in. In the reality, these Weight-Watchers commercials have a negative impact through their message and are a negative influence through the use of their persuasion techniques.
Behind every large company, there is a marketing team coming up with new ways to persuade customers to buy their products or sign up for their services. One popular phrase that Weight-Watchers uses is “Diets don’t work, Weight-Watchers does.” Even though the program that the company supports is a diet, the marketing strategists try to make their plan more appealing by categorizing it in a different light. They are currently using this strategy because the company marketers have figured out what consumers want. The new commercials that Weight-Watchers is producing are genius. They are trying to win over consumers by suggesting that people do not actually need what they are trying to sell. But if they would like to have better weight loss results, they could use their services to achieve their goal. They have figured out the great mystery behind excellent marketing: shoppers are susceptible to flattery.
By knowing their audience, the marketing team at Weight-Watchers has been able to modify its campaign and therefore make their services more appealing to consumers. The marketing team knows, as Han Fei Tzu stated, that “the difficult thing about persuasion is to know the mind of the person one is trying to persuade and to be able to fit one’s words to it” (558). That is why they have changed their marketing strategy to the suggestion that diets do not actually work, and they know this, that is why they are offering people a program that is not called a diet, when in actuality that is what it is. Americans are tired of hearing about diets and wants to find one that will actually work; after all, beauty is an obsession.
Even though Weight-Watchers commercials do not seem to be harmful, they have a very negative impact on the audience who views them. As stated by the Weight-Watchers Incorporated Company, there target demographics for the commercials and for their services are overweight women between the ages of 25 to 64 (A). If they have such a specific targeted group, why are these commercials on all the time, like after school? Are grown women, who presumably work a full time job, going to be home watching television after work? Students, particularly girls, are being exposed to these types of commercials that promote “fitting into the latest clothes by summertime.” It is no wonder why the nation’s youth is facing terrible eating disorders; it is because of the “constant bombardment of overly-thin women in the media and advertisements for weight-loss methods [that] puts an unhealthy mindset in a person, especially in the minds of women” (B).
These commercials are produced solely for the company’s profit; they are making money by pressuring Americans to be thin. Thin, not healthy. As stated before, Weight-Watchers demographics include overweight women between the ages of 25 to 64. Only women, does our society only have overweight women? What about the overweight men? It is interesting that only women are targeted by this company; it is because women feel more pressure every day to be thin, as opposed to their male counterparts. They feel the pressure to be thin, not healthy, but thin. One commercial states:
“Wanna lose weight and keep eating the foods you love? Go for it. Wanna fit into the latest clothes by summer? You can do it. Wanna watch your waist line shrink while enjoying the same foods as everyone else? Be our guest. Discover why people attending Weight-Watchers meetings lose three times more weight than those who go it alone.”
No where in this commercial did it say anything like “Wanna be able to run five miles by next summer?” The program is only promoting beauty by your measurements, not health. Meanwhile, as Weight-Watchers is encouraging America to be a size 0, they are making millions of dollars per year from their services. As reported by the company, in “2005, consumers spent over 3 billion on Weight-Watchers products and services” (A).
Instead of pouring millions of dollars into this program each year, Americans can take charge of their lives and their responsibilities. Instead of wasting money and fruitless items such as weight loss pills and programs, Americans can spend extra money to ensure their food is healthy or they could buy a gym membership. Weight-Watchers commercials are sending the message to viewers, who should not be exposed to them, that thin is beautiful; and the only way to be thin is to spend an obscene amount of money on products such as theirs. These commercials are a negative influence on America’s children and check books.
