It is no surprise
to see countless weight loss ads running during the first few days after the
New Year. All of these companies focusing on weight loss are trying to play off of the numerous Americans who vowed to lose weight as part of their New Years resolution
for 2013. One advertisement in particular caught my attention this year—the
Jessica Simpson Weight Watchers ad. At first, it seemed like the typical ad for
weight loss with a famous celebrity face, until Simpson announces that she is
expecting another baby. I was astounded by the implicit message being
broadcasted by the fact that a pregnant woman is the face of a weight loss
campaign. Also in very fine print at the bottom of the screen, it reads,
“Pregnant women are not eligible for Weight Watchers.” After reading that my thought process went
from, Is Weight Watchers seriously
suggesting pregnant women need to lose weight?, to Why the heck would they still have a pregnant woman be the face of
Weight Watchers when pregnant women aren’t even eligible?
The original
purpose of having Jessica Simpson promote Weight Watchers was to create a
bandwagon effect. Viewers would think, “If Jessica Simpson is on dieting with
this program, then I should too!” After finding out the news of Simpson’s
pregnancy, Weigh Watcher’s clearly tries to continue to use her and try to show
that good things happened to Simpson after being on Weight Watchers, so
therefore good things—like a pregnancy—will happen to people who join Weight
Watchers. On the surface this seems to work, but when one really considers how
messed up the pregnant woman promoting weight loss really is, the ad loses its integrity.
Link to Advertisement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxbTnr1Fw0k
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