How's that New Year's weight loss resolution going for you? The overly common premise of television commercials this time of year contains the typically chubby American scrambling to the nearest Bally's with hope of banishing that flabby physique. While these advertisements can be a source of motivation for individuals with a slowing metabolism and sedentary lifestyle, the unequally distributed and improperly focused television ads for weight loss are vastly ineffective, and bordering on sexist.
Take the average block of primetime sitcoms on any major network. Then look at the commercials that run during one half-hour slot. Curves, Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine frozen dinners, One-A-Day Weight Smart vitamins and the Special K Challenge are all weight loss products or programs, and all are targeted at women'particularly those over the age of 30.
Everyone knows to call 1-800-597-JENNY, but where can Johny Craig be reached? Though Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers do accept men in their programs (Curves is women-only), these groups predominantly show women in commercials and have women spokespersons. True, the ads featuring a fabulously thinner Kirstie Alley dancing in the street, surrounded by adoring men while proclaiming her 55-lb loss is exciting and inspiring, but why couldn't males who also found success with the program have been her partners?
The under-representation of males in weight loss commercials is just the tip of the iceberg. These ads aimed at viewer self-improvement coincidentally run during programs such as ABC's 'According to Jim,' which operates under the Stepford Wife scenario: a thin and beautiful woman married to a disproportionately unattractive and out of shape man. The underlying message of the program and commercials subconsciously keeps aesthetics as the foremost priority in motivating women to obtain a leaner physique.
Yet, could it be that women have been working out and cutting calories for all the wrong reasons? Gasp and drool, for the truth is awfully shocking: The health benefits that come from dropping pounds outweigh a woman's need to please her man by fitting back into the size six jeans she wore when they first met.
The only advertisements remotely male-focused as a motivation to lose weight are the infamous John Basedow infomercials. Commercials showing negative health effects of being overweight, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and type-2 diabetes, more often depict men, and are targeted at men.
Yet overweight men are not the only people with significant health risks from obesity. Heart disease, often a byproduct of careless calorie consumption and an inactive lifestyle, is the number one killer of women in United States. Instead of throwing away their 'fat pants' in a fit of glee, commercials should depict women rejoicing over losing weight to avoid needing double-bypass surgery.
Not all companies fall into this pattern, however. Quaker Oats has started a rather effective campaign using both men and women, many of whom are married couples. Together, these people lowered their cholesterol by eating a diet infused with oatmeal, focusing on the health gains'rather than the weight loss'from their new eating habits.
An important reason most other companies market weight loss from an aesthetic viewpoint is the 'here-and-now' consumer mentality of today's society. People are preoccupied with immediate results that can be noticed in the mirror or in passing on the street' not with long-term results one only finds out from a visit to a doctor.
Maintaining the way society views weight loss only serves to endanger health over time. For those who are lackadaisical about their overweight appearance, the motivation will only come too late, after a heart attack or diabetes diagnosis. If mass-marketed, nationwide health and weight loss companies truly care for the well-being of consumers and not only about making money with each new diet trend, they should be the ones to make a New Year's resolution: to stress awareness of the greater, long-term health concerns that accompany obesity.
