Attention "diet commercial" haters! Here's a whole new one to hate!

[Left Is Write]

I have seen it a dozen times today! I do not know why I am shouting!

It's for Lean Cuisine. There are three women eating their lunches at their desks at work. First one says, "I hate dieting." Second one says, "Me too." First one slurps down her meal-replacement shake and moans, "Still hungry," then glances at the third one, who is eating a tempting meal. "You aren't dieting?" says the first one. "This is Lean Cuisine blah blah blah," chirps the third one. "It keeps me on track." First one pouts. "I wanna mean on track," she whines.

The third one, the one eating Lean Cuisine, is especially slender. Why wasn't she offended at the suggestion that she should be "dieting"? None of the three is anywhere close to being overweight. The message, however, is clear:

Eat Lean Cuisine! Be happy!

[flvegan]

1. Ah, yes...

forever hacking at the branches of weight issues and ignoring the roots. Using the word "cuisine" in their branding is criminal.

[Left Is Write]

2. What's disturbing to me is that they use slender women to advertise.

These women don't NEED to be "dieting" or attempting to lose weight, and yet there they are, giving just that implication. Talk about contributing to self-image and weight issues among the general population of girls and women.

[flvegan]

3. The "if I eat this, I'll look like that" marketing genius.

Were I the marketing rep for Lean Cuisine and didn't care about health or ethics, I'd have the first two eating apples and rice cakes. The third, still super slim, looking like a 6 year old eating pudding without a spoon. Chocolate on her face, squirrel-cheeked with a mouthful of food. Maybe even a huge turkey drumstick in one hand. The first would ask, "arent' you dieting?" to wit she'd reply, "I was, but Lean Cuisine got me on track, and now I can be a total freaking pig!" The second would then say, "I want to be a total freaking pig." and would pout.

I think I'd also hire some Fitness Olympia winner to be that actress as well. Thin isn't over the top enough. I'd want muscle tone and tanning.

[Deja Q]

4. Ditto for Slim Fast, whose predominant ingrediant is sugar.

Unused sugar is stored as fat.

People, myself included, need to exercise. Then we can all look as hot as Rachel Ray and eat a pound of butter for breakfast and get away with it.

[S n o w b a l l]

5. Have you seen the new Nutri System commercial?

It's the same girl only now she's a size 4 and they cut out the giggling. Ha! I can't believe they used the same girl and changed her size! Idiots.

[Left Is Write]

6. No, I haven't - I've seen a few NutriSystem commercials today too -

but that girl is still a giggly two.

Apparently the target market of those who watch GSN are overeaters who need New Year's diet plans. :D

[sleepyhead]

13. That size two girl, by the way...

Seems to me that if she was only 30 lb from a size 2, as she claims in the ad, she couldn't have been that overweight in the first place - maybe she started out as a size 6? That doesn't strike me as being too heavy at all (for me, anything in the single digits counts as being slim!) I guess if she was very short, she'd have looked overweight at size 6, but not if she was over, say, 5 feet tall.

[Left Is Write]

17. After my son weaned almost three years ago, I weighed 135 pounds.

I'm 5'4". It doesn't really sound like I was overweight either, and I was wearing 4s and 6s. However, I had a bodyfat percentage of 32%! That's way too much. I lost 25 pounds, discovered 110 was really too thin, and came back up to 115, which I have maintained within three pounds either way ever since. I now wear 0s and 2s and have a bodyfat between 20 and 22%. I'm much healthier than I was at that starting point. I have a narrow frame, though, and I'm built sort of straight up and down.

However, I do NOT think it's a good idea for the advertisers to use size only as a gauge of what's good or healthy. They are concentrating on her "2"! and not the idea of eating well for good health. (Not that I consider prepackaged NutriSystem food to be the best example of "eating well.") Someone with a genetic tendency to curviness would look and feel terrible at a size 2. People forget to take into account frame size, natural shape, genetics, etc.

All the diet products concentrate on the number - the weight, the size. It shouldn't be the be-all end-all. And nothing should be touted as a "quick" or "easy" solution overweight, nor should normally sized, healthy women feel like they somehow aren't good enough because they don't match up to the admittedly non-typical results of the testimonials given on television.

[sleepyhead]

32. Interesting.

I am your exact height, but will never in my wildest dreams weigh 115. Not only am I somewhat "curvy", but I inherited a tendency toward an "apple" shape from my mom's side of the family and am constantly fighting the accumulation of belly fat (TMI, I know!). I will never have a flat tummy like the women in the ads, but with diligent attendance at the gym and careful dietary management, I hope to stay healthy. It's entirely possible to be strong and fit without necessarily conforming to the "numbers". And I agree that relying on a pre-packaged diet, rather than concentrating on fresh, non-processed foods in reasonable portions, is counterproductive in the long run. Not only are you ingesting all kinds of preservatives and fillers, but you never really learn to manage your own diet. (Not to mention that I have tasted some of the NutriSystem meals and they are lousy!)

[REP]

21. She's A Different New Size, Depending Upon When/Where Ad is Run

I've noticed that the exact ad runs in different time slots/shows with altered copy; in some, she's a size 2; in others she's a size 4; yet others she's a size 6. It depends upon the demos of the shows; younger demos get the skinnier new size; less affluent demos (CourtTV) get the 'bigger' sizes.

[Generic Brad]

38. There is no way that woman is a size 2

She is way too curvaceous.

[thefool_wa]

7. Lipozene - what a CROCK!

I hate diet commercials.

Comedy Central plays the Lipozene spots like every other ad. Its to the point where, when one came on during the Daily Show,my 4 year old walked up to my wife and said, "Mommy needs that so her tummy doesn't get fat." My wife is in no way over-weight but my 4 year old still absorbed the message.

I was reading the fine print on that stuff and it says that people in the study lost an average of 3.68 lbs over 8 weeks. I don't see how this such an "amazing breakthrough" when I lost that much just cutting out soda from my diet.

Also, the "scientific" name they gave the stuff is Amorphophallus Konjac. That sounds like they make it out of frog penis and booze.

The ad basically says, "don't take responsibility - take our pill" - it makes me sick.

[flvegan]

9. Lipozene is a scam. Want to know HOW an average of 3.68 lbs was lost

over 8 weeks? Try eating regularly while quintupling your fiber intake. That's all Lipozene is. Problem is, you lose a lot of nutrients and hydration this way.

[thefool_wa]

12. Yeah - what a load

Apprently, literally :)

They are by far the most common ad during the day on Comedy Central. Its amazing.

Much like Bob, when I see that blond lady or hear her voice I want to punch her for agreeing to bilk money out of people who need education, not a stupid fake pill.

:grr:

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. I'm all in favor of

the decimation of the You're Not Good Enough industry.



Who's with me? :bounce:

[blondeatlast]

10. Where would it ever END, though?

Seriously--what industry ISN'T part of it?

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. Yeah, I was thinkin' that

I was gonna call it the "If You Don't Use Our Crap, You're Not Good Enough" industry, but then I realized that covers just about everything. :shrug:

[S n o w b a l l]

11. Aye!

And I'm protesting tonight by having garlic cheese bread, pizza & beer!:party:

[Oeditpus Rex]

15. Oooo!

Cheesy garlic bread! I got six hunks of it in the freezer. :bounce:

[thefool_wa]

16. Well, obesity is a true health problem

But I will concede that the commercialization of diet products is not the solution. People need to know, and teach their kids, how to maintain healthy weight. It really isn't all that difficult.

I was a member of a gym for 3 whole months and all I took away was what I got from my weekly meetings with the nutritionist. She taught my wife and I healthy eating habits and how to eat to your own activity level. Not everyone needs to spend hours and hours in the gym and it only takes a little effort to simply maintain a healthy weight.

Acceptance of your own body type is key also, and can be more difficult to achieve.

I wish there was a way to stop the spread of ignorance that the "dieting industry" spreads and get people to look in the right places to find the knowledge that will lead to harmony with their eating habits and self.

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. The You're Not Good Enough industry isn't about obesity

It makes its billions from people who've been led to believe — largely by the industry itself — that a BMI of more than 6 means they'll never find someone who'll love them.

What we need are a lot more ads like — was it Dove? The ones that basically said, "I'm great the way I am. YOU need to adjust your marketing to ME."

[thefool_wa]

20. I totally agree

The commercail diet industry has no intentions of making people thinner. Its self defeating.

I loved that dove commercial. It was filled with very beautiful, very real looking women too.

[Left Is Write]

22. Unfortunately, even the Dove models were "too good" -

Despite their varying heights, weights, and shapes, they all had lush, full hair, clear and healthy facial skin, smooth body skin, and even, white teeth.

Most people still don't measure up.

[Oeditpus Rex]

25. True

But it's still an improvement.

[thefool_wa]

27. It is still TV

and there is no way to avoid that, its just the way TV works.

It doesn't mean you have to feel bad about yourself, maybe it just means you need to stop watching TV.

(of course, I am using a general you, not meaning you specifically)

[Left Is Write]

29. I know, but it isn't older women like me that I worry about -

it's young girls who internalize such messages without even realizing it.

[thefool_wa]

31. Oh I totally hear you

I will refer back to my post about lipozene and my 4 year olds reaction to the commercials.

It really falls on parents to help curb the negative aspects of TV's version of reality. And I see it getting nothing but harder and harder for us as our children grow...

[Archae]

18. I tried "Lean Cuisine" once.

Some box dinner, something and rice.

I think the box had more flavor.

[LynzM]

23. Ugh, yes...

Hate that ad.

What drives me the most crazy about Lean Cuisine is probably that the food isn't even all that lean. It's just portion control. If people learned about and followed portion control (and as a Type 1 diabetic who's done it for 17 years, I feel justified in saying that, lol), they'd realize that spending the money to have someone else do it for them is silly, once they know how!

[Left Is Write]

24. Excellent point. Portion control is everything.

Eat regular food - just eat it in normal portions and not the supersized food extravaganza that passes for portions in the U.S.

Lean Cuisine and the like tend to be high in sodium also.

[LynzM]

26. Exactly

I loved the time I spent in Europe - I actually finished the food that I ordered in restaurants, without taking two more meals home (at least one of which I consistently don't end up eating, and feel wasteful x( )

If you compare the portion sizes in the U.S. to the rest of the world, it's really disgusting. There was a neat book that did just that - looked at what an "average" family ate over the course of a week, done in pictures. I don't remember what it's called, though. Anybody know?

[Skittles]

34. still

buying LC is not as big a rip off as, say Nutrisystem, who charges an arm and a leg to deliver basically the same food to someone's door

[Left Is Write]

35. It's probably better.

NutriSystem doesn't need to be frozen or even refrigerated. How loaded is it with preservatives?

[Skittles]

36. it's still a ripoff

like you say, it's portion control

[flvegan]

28. The WORST part of that is that

it's corporate portion control. Folks are taught by an industry shill that "this is what I can have, and this is all I can eat" and learn nothing. It's total f'ing mind control, and it enslaves those that get caught up in it to the nth degree.

[sendero]

30. No commercial could be ...

... as prone to making me toss my cookies as those damn Bowflex commercials, particularly the one with the 49 year old guy who is "living his dream" and "playing in a rock band" and owes it all to his Bowflex body.

Yeah, buddy - right. :)

[Skittles]

33. lol

I always say, yeah buddy but you're still ugly :o

[LaraMN]

37. Oh! Oh! I HATE that one!

He just has to keep reiterating that he's in a "rock band," like that automatically makes him SO cool. Ugh. They probably play bad covers of Def Leppard songs.