Jenny Craig's New Strategy?
Interesting post at TMZ of all places, about Queen Latifah’s endorsement of the Jenny Craig diet (which, if you recall I had issues with). You can follow that link to see some before and after shots of Queen Latifah, but this is the entirety of the post:
We’re hearing there’s a new strategy in Jenny Land – Zero Embarrassment. After Kirstie Alley lost a ton of weight for the commercial, gained it back and then some, it looked as if Jenny’s plan just didn’t work long term.
So the new plan…get someone who can look good by losing a relatively small amount of weight — In Queen’s case, 20 lbs. She looks really good, if not svelte, but if she gains it back it’s not going to look like Jenny Craig was a failure.
First of all, I hadn’t heard that Kirstie Alley had gained back the weight. She says she hasn’t; the National Enquirer posted photos that purported to be recent, showing that she has. The commenters at that link are sympathetic to Kirstie, if it’s true.
I did a diet plan similiar to JC and once you stop eating THEIR food — it is nearly imposible to stay thin. I quickly gained back that weight AND some. Very frustrating.
The second part of the TMZ article that’s interesting is the strategy behind it. If Queen Latifah loses a small amount of weight in the short term, no matter what happens in the long term the perception is that of success, whereas if Kirstie regains a large amount of weight, the perception is failure. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it’s certainly an intriguing idea from an advertising standpoint. What do you think?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advertising, Celebrities, Cold Hard Cash, Gossip, Kirstie Alley, Magazines, Media, Queen Latifah, Weight Loss
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I think dieting companies are finally seeing that the new strategy for staying financially viable in a culture that is increasingly realizing that diets don’t work is to rework their plan as one that somehow isn’t a diet and to focus on health, not weight loss. But Jenny Craig doesn’t want you to be satisfied with losing just 20 pounds nor do they care about your health — it’s just the carrot to get you started on their plan. Once you start losing weight — and many people do lose weight as long as they follow the diet plan exactly — you’re hooked and Jenny Craig wins.
Bah, the Before pic of the Queen has her sitting down and eating, whereas the After pic shows her standing up and looking like she’s been hitting the gym. When will there be Before vs After shots showing the person in similar poses? Oh wait, doing so might not show nearly as much improvement…
It’s like picking up your worst picture of yourself and use it as a before and then choosing your best pic ever as an after… Of course, people will be gushing over how much better you look in the after pic, even if both pics were taken in the same time frame or so.
I don’t think it matters if a 20 lb weight loss or 150 lb weight loss can’t be sustained permanently by using JC. Either way, it shows the diet doesn’t work to keep the weight off forever, just like all the other diets out there. Doesn’t matter which diet you use, it’s not going to make you permanently thin(ner). I see those commercials, and go “Yeah, right, you don’t give a rat’s ass about my health, all you want is my money. Tough titty, you ain’t getting it ’cause I’m smarter than that now.” It’s a marketing ploy, plain and simple, and I don’t believe any marketing ploys anymore (no grain of salt for me, it’s the whole damned salt mine).
I dunno. I fail to see how Kirstie Alley looks “fat” in either of those pictures. Yeah, in the second one she looks like she’s packing a few more pounds, but her body, in both cases, is fine, and for some men (like me) the larger her is far more desirable.
And Queen Latifah? She’s become the spokesperson for the ordinary woman lately, hasn’t she? First Cover Girl and now Jenny Craig? She’s a beautiful woman, though, and I reckon I’m happy to see someone who isn’t a toothpick landing those spots.
Yeah, I’m with Simon…I’m guessing that the shot from NE is probably real it’s just the angle is not as flattering (it it probably wasn’t touched up as the one in the other article).
It’s still amazingly frustrating that the weight loss idea is being pushed as “healthy” when it’s not sustainable and yo-yoing (even a 20 lb range) can be really upsetting to your body.
That is very interesting, I didn’t think of it that way. However for as big of a role model she has been to bigger girls I was extremely disappointed to see her in diet ads.
I don’t think KA looks big in the second photo either; she’s just wearing a more drapey style of dress.
By the way, we now seem to have all-chocolate sidebar ads!
Jenny Craig is brilliant. You’re right, with
Queen L, Jenny can’t fail!
The big bottom line is if you want to lose weight and keep it off, you need to eat real food…you will not find that in a package in your mailbox…unless it’s organic vegetable seeds for your garden. Duh!
That was actually my first thought when I heard about Jenny Craig’s “plan” for Queen Latifah. Someone naturally large, as she is, can look like they’ve lost or gained close to that depending solely on what they wear or how they stand (and how they’re photographed of course.)
I’m not much bigger than Latifah and I can lose and gain the same fifteen pounds (not trying to lose, that just seems to be a natural fluctuation for me depending on time of the month and other factors) and no one can even tell. So now no matter what happens they can claim her as a “success story” and use her to hook those desperate to lose. It’s a trap and a good one and I am so sad that Queen Latifah played into their hands and agreed to go along with it.
(Kami Gray, plenty of us eat “real food” in normal amounts and do not lose weight and keep it off.)
First of all, I think Kirstie is gorgous. Second of all, can you imagine being hounded like that and put on display? And then cruely critiqued. It’s my worst nightmare.
Kami, I grow a lot of my own food, eat a wide variety of fresh vegetables, bake my own bread when I want to have it, and exercise regularly. Nothing in my cupboard is pre-prepared or packed with additives. When I started living this way I gained a little weight, and have been stable since. I never lost a pound.
“Healthy” living and weight loss are poles apart for many people.
Oh, good grief. Eating packaged food does not make you fat, and the jury is definitely out on whether organic food will add 10 years (or other arbitrary number).
I am really getting tired of all these food-as-medicine notions. I know really thin people who eating processed food. I know “healthy” people who eat processed food.
As for Jenny Craig? All former posters are correct. JC is selling dissatisfaction with your body. No amount of their product will work forever.
I meant to say “Will add 10 years (or other arbitray number) to your life.”
Good grief, again. This time at me.
Eating packaged food does not make you fat…
I disagree. Many processed foods are low in nutritional value and contain empty calories, both of which can contribute to weight gain. Processed foods are also often high in sugar and contain chemicals that are not easily broken down and digested by the body, which can also play a role in body weight. And even if they don’t result in weight gain, I would argue that fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains are vastly healthier than a steady diet of boxed processed foods with ingredients you can’t even pronounce. And in my case, my former diet of fast food and processed foods did contribute to my weight. I’ve since radically changed my diet and am now vegetarian, eat a mostly plant-based diet and eschew many processed foods. This and becoming more active have helped me sustain a significant weight loss for five years without dieting.
And Jenny Craig? Isn’t even healthy food, really. The same food the Queen now advocates for preventing diabetes and other health problems is extremely high in refined sugar, additives, artificial ingredients, added sugars, and hydrogenated oils and low in fat, fiber and vegetable consumption – as documented by a nutritionist’s review of the Jenny Craig plan.
Psst.. I’m not trying to say that because the above worked for me, it will work for everyone. It may and it may not. I’m just saying that for some people, like me, what they eat does play a role in their body weight.
In marketing terms, what Jenny Craig is doing is remarkably smart.
In moral/health terms (dangling easy permanent weight loss in front of the desperate, claiming that health is just a dress size away), it’s diabolical.
Has anyone else noticed how the Jenny Craig ads now all talk about how the celebrity spokesperson – whether Queen Latifah or Valerie Bertanelli – is ‘a size healthier’ or ‘size active’? Even now that Queen is mentioning losing twenty pounds, that’s secondary.
The way it’s put now makes a lot of people think that it’s entirely about getting healthy, when in nutritional terms, JC is the worst of the pre-packaged diet plans (that’s according to epicurious.com from their head-to-head comparison of several different popular diet plans on the market, not just my opinion).
It’s not about your health. It’s not about your beauty. It’s about their profit margin.
It’s smart marketing, but I’m not sure I could sleep at night if I’d been the one to come up with it.
I tried Jenny Crfaig. Over the phone.
They didn’t ask much about my health history, whether or not I had any history of EDs (which I do), they just asked me how much I wanted to lose, and me on the program, and had me call in once a week.
And I LIED!!!!!! After the first couple of weeks I stopped losing. Instead of pointing out that maybe I didn’t have any more weight to lose (which was actually the case at the time), she started counseling me on all the things I may have done “wrong.” Did I eat only the recommended food (Yes) Did I exercise? (HELL yes!), blah, blah, blah. So every time I called in afterwards I told her I’d lost weight. Until my contract was up (2 months) and swore NEVER to go on any commercial weight loss program again.
So I’m not exactly impartial when it comes to Jenny Craig, lol!
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Yeah, how long has Weight Watchers had the “Stop Dieting. Start Living” motto? I’m only now noticing it and it seems like another reworking.
whatever the “strategy” it makes me lose respect for the Jenny Craig system. Manipulating ads and perception is vile.
As for Queen L… don’t be mad at her for being interested in her health. Yeah, she looks great, but the reality is she will live longer and feel better if she trims down a bit. She’s being a great model!
Actually, studies show that “overweight” americans have a lower mortality rate than “normal” americans. Also, dieting causes irreparable damage to your system and cycles of dieting and gaining back weight is much more detrimental than just having more fat on your body than the bmi charts recommend. The idea that she is increasing her health and lifespan by losing 20 pounds is highly debatable, especially if it’s just because she started eating Jenny Craig foods. If she started exercising, then yeah she’ll be healthier and live longer probably if she keeps it up, but weight loss is not necessarily an indicator of health.
And PS if she was just interested in her health she’d get a personal trainer and eat more veggies, not get paid to run a national campaign telling women they are too fat to be healthy. Yup.
It doesn’t seem that you quite grasp the point of FA/HAES, Cin. Thin does not equal healthy and it does not guarantee a longer life.
If, as you say, Queen was truly interested in her health, she wouldn’t be eating such processed and preservative laden crap.
And if she does end up feeling better, it will probably have more to do with being congratulated on her ability to hate her body into submission than anything else.
I read the article about Queen Latifah on TMZ. I felt like, well what do you expect. I thought Queen Latifah who used to be size positive was a traitor, now the reality is that she’s the one being used.
The only reason they had her promote Jenny Craig, was cause it would be ambiguous if she lost or gained weight. I hope it was worth it to Queen Latifah, for all the fans she lost when she decided to sell out her message of size-positivity. I don’t think Monique would ever do that.
Cin joining a company known for putting people on starvation diets, and if you don’t belive me have you seen one of their sandwhiches? They’re about this big across ( ) That’s not a sandwhich, that’s a bite. They call that a meal.
Queen Latifah is being used by Jenny Craig, she’s merely puppeting the message that they’re no longer about loosing weight, it’s about health. It’s nonsense, just like Weight Watchers ads claiming they’re not a diet. Oh no, please don’t label us with the d word, really we’re not like that. Food restriction = diet. You can call it lifestyle change, or a different way of living. A rose is a rose by any other name.
Forcing your body to be a size it’s not genetically destined to be, is not healthy. Only 2% of people are destined genetically to be the super-skinny current ideal. Also Cin, if diets oops I mean “lifestyle changes” worked, why do people keep having to go back to Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers? Why does the weight not stay off? It’s because they don’t care about your health, they care about your money.
You wouldn’t go back to a store that sold you a broken item, yet people keep going back to these diet companies that sell them a broken concept of health. If you feel fine, you are healthy. Fat or thin. And by the way Cin, this fat hysteria is damaging thin people too. Thin people are not invincible just because they’re thin. You’ll see, those thin people who eat unhealthily will get sick too.
The media just won’t be reporting about it, because it would clash with their ability to make money off of prejudice. A show won’t tell you that Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers are a waste, because they’re sponsored by them. Look at who’s pockets the money is going into, and where that money is coming from. It’s a nice fantasy to think that starvation = healthy living. That it’s simple as dieting and getting thin.
The fat acceptance movement deals with the reality, that most fat people die from yo-yo dieting, going back and forth to these companies to become “healthy” time and time again. They’re simply now co-opting fat acceptance lingo, to sell their products. It’s as manipulative you can get.
Cin, Queen Latifah isn’t being a great model. She’s an example of what one does simply when they are so desperate for money, they will sell out their ideals in one hot minute. She’s someone who could make money without selling out people who once saw her as a role model for someone who was proud of their body as it was. She chose the easy way out. That isn’t strength, it’s weakness. It’s someone who will dismiss their morals, for the highest price. You call that a role model?
I really don’t feel bad for Kirstie being hounded now about her weight, because she sold out millions of women and girls when she got paid by the diet industry to say stupid things on ads. Same with Queen, who I usually love. Jenny is no one’s friend, never has been, and if any celeb takes that devil’s deal I think they are asking for the same scrutiny about weight that fuels the diet gods. It serves FA to have the public continually see that diet gimmicks do not work.
Weight loss should not be a circus for the public to comment on, but some of these celebrities are way too eager to spout off to the media about how they dropped the pounds, whether it be by Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, some psycho diet plan, or in the case of Carnie Wilson, WLS. (I know Al Roker and Randy Jackson have had WLS too, but the media wasn’t too rabid about them compared to Carnie). Then if they gain the weight back, they boo-hoo and cry to the media about how they’ve “failed” and they will keep trying to not be fat. I don’t have sympathy for people like that or those that suddenly become fat experts overnight and feel it’s their duty to shame others for being fat (Subway Jared and Kimberley Locke, I’m looking at you).
Not only does it serve FA to show the public diet gimmicks do not work and can be more dangerous than being healthy at the weight a person is now, it also serves FA to educate that dieting just to appeal to a society’s physical ideal is also damaging.
I just lost 25 pounds this summer and even though I was pudgy enough to begin with that it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference, it’s to the point that others can tell there’s something “different” about me. Even though my clothing size is roughly the same (man, I packed a lot of pounds into this size!), I am defining success by NOT regaining. Sure, it’s nice to lose weight but honestly, I consider maintenance just as much a victory as seeing a lower number on the scale.
The fat acceptance movement deals with the reality, that most fat people die from yo-yo dieting, going back and forth to these companies to become “healthy” time and time again.
While I think the “health” claims of diets and diet companies are pretty disingenuous and that weight isn’t a reliable measure of health, is there any kind of substantial evidence that yo-yo dieting is actually deadly? I know drastic loss through crash diets is unhealthy, but if there’s anything out there that strongly indicates that cycles of weight loss and gain has seriously harmful effects, I think I’ve missed it. If there’s a study somewhere I’d like to be able to show it to my doctor (who thinks otherwise, and I’m struggling with her on that point).
I think every single one of you is absolutely ridiculous.Shame on every single one of you for bad mouthing someone for getting healthier. I have lost over 50lbs on Jenny Craig and kept it off, and it sounds like to me that’s way more than any of you could ever say. Jenny Craig focuses on portion control, self monitoring and the basic food groups, they also transition you into doing meals on your own and go through a management program with you as well to keep you at goal. Which is something you clearly know nothing about. As far as cost, I’m sure it seems expensive if you cannot imagine giving up your 10.00 Mcdonalds meals. But the fact is Jenny Craig works, if it didn’t they wouldn’t have people like Queen , nor be in business for over 25 years. So congratulations to all of you sitting on here wasting your time, because if you put 1/2 the amount of time that you spend bitching into changing your lifestyle you would all be thin and we all know that what all of you want….
This might be a little off topic, but a couple years ago – ok, maybe more like a decade and a half ago – I was doing a diet plan – I won’t name it because I feel this was probably an issue I had more with the individual counselor than with the program itself – I’m sure the program wouldn’t have condoned it.
But anyway.
I was studying for finals and told my counselor I was having a hard time not reaching for the M&M’s while I studied. She asked, “What is it about the M&M’s? Is it the sugar? The chocolate? Or is it just the hand to mouth action?” I said I was sure I didn’t know, I just knew I wanted ’em. I acknowledged that perhaps I just wanted something to do with my hands while I sat for such long periods of time studying. She said, “Are you a smoker?” I told her no – I’ve never been a smoker. She said, “Well maybe you should take it up just to get yourself through finals. You can quit when they’re over. That will satisfy the hand to mouth thing and you won’t gain weight.” Needless to say I walked out, never walked in again.
I bought a big bag of M&M’s on the way home.
Yeah. She was all about my health…
Wendy of course there’s no “substantial evidence” that yo-yo dieting is deadly. Why do you think researchers would bother with proving, that is the real cause of plus-sized people dieting. When it’s much more lucrative to claim it’s because they don’t eat right? Do you really think that researchers are going to let something like the truth get in the way of their pocketbook?
Feel free to visit this article for more on how yo yo dieting causes health problems:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/357639/the_dangers_of_yoyo_dieting.html?cat=51
It also is very rare, if even at all possible, for someone to be able to change their natural body size without doing something that may damage their body.
The only point to the thin ideal, and the claims that weight loss is the magic bullet that cures all ills, is to make money off those who are customers who will always return. It is easy to make money off of weight loss, because it is convincing someone to give you money to help them do the impossible. They know their customers will loose the weight, and gain it back or gain back even more weight, than they had before. They will return to the diet center again and again. Damaging their bodies in strife to acheive the impossible goal of the thin ideal.
I meant when I said, “Why do you think researchers would bother with proving, that is the real cause of plus-sized people dieting.”
To saying dying instead of dieting at the end.
Wendy of course there’s no “substantial evidence” that yo-yo dieting is deadly. Why do you think researchers would bother with proving, that is the real cause of plus-sized people dying. When it’s much more lucrative to claim it’s because they don’t eat right? Do you really think that researchers are going to let something like the truth get in the way of their pocketbook?
Well, I don’t know, I think the bariatric associations would love to have a nice alarming study on the deadliness of yo-yo dieting, the better to convince people to “lose the weight permanently through surgery.”
I do believe that a great deal of the weight and obesity research we hear about is serving diet-industry agendas, but I just don’t buy that there’s absolutely no interest in investigating fatally harmful effects of dieting.
I know that yo-yo dieting can lead to gallstones and it doesn’t do your body any favors. I don’t need to be convinced of that. But that “most fat people die from yo-yo dieting” line really gave me pause, and to be honest, I hoping to hear there was more to it besides “well, of course there’s no evidence, because everyone’s afraid to prove it.” It doesn’t feel much different than saying “well, of course diets work, but most people are too lazy/stupid/afraid to make them work.”
I’m all about fighting the claims about dieting being “healthy,” but I think it’s better to stay away from the same kind of health hyperbole the diet industry uses.
Well Wendy, that would be much easier to do if we weren’t fighting a bare-bones battle against a society that constantly belittles, berates, and dehumanizes people just for simply being fat.
Sometimes a part of winning the war is first winning the small battles. It’s very difficult for people to even understand that dieting could be bad, let alone that it could be deadly. You should read the Junkfood Science blog over at:
http://www.junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/
For more about how research is unquestionably fixed to promote complete lies about being fat, just to foward the diet industry and a government looking for an easy fix to the health care problems.
I’d rather see someone live a life, rather than be concerned over if there’s enough outside proof to support what I know to be true from personal experience.
Dieting does not work.
Dieting damages a already healthy yet fat body.
You can be fat and be healthy at the same time.
Self-starvation is what dieting is. Dieting is a nicer way of saying, self induced Anorexic behavior.
You watch a documentary like Thin by HBO, or meet someone who’s starving themselves because they have felt all their life, they are horrible for being fat. Imagine how many more people will be in eating disorder centers, how many more young people like 10 year olds will be there. Trying to convince themselves it’s okay to eat.
I’m sorry if those things matter more to me, than if I’m using the same health hyperbole that the diet industry uses.
I think that childrens’ lives are more important than if I’m using the proper rehtoric to get my point across.
The proper rhetoric IS important, because credibility is at stake here.
I don’t need to be convinced of anything you mentioned above, and I know the Junkfood Science site, too. However, if you were to say something like “most fat people die from yo-yo dieting” to anyone who needs more convincing than I do, and then, when asked to back that statement up, backtrack and say a.) well, it’s not proven because there’s a conspiracy against it and b.) well, you feel it personally to be true and c.) think of the children!, I just don’t think it’s terribly helpful. Not for you, the person you’re trying to inform, or the fat acceptance movement.
It’s definitely frustrating that people don’t understand that dieting is harmful, but I just don’t think it’s a good idea to switch up from “harmful” to “deadly” just to get a point across, especially if saying so gets farther from the known facts.
I think a lot of people out there already feel the same way you and I do, but they don’t yet have solid information to validate their experiences and give them a basis for their own self-acceptance. That’s why it’s so important to make sure the arguments we put forth aren’t as faulty as the rhetoric we’re trying to fight.
It’s really infuriating when the anti-obesity folks revert to things like “people are dying” and “think of the children” to make themselves heard and to justify their ends. When people come to the fat acceptance movement with questions, don’t they deserve better answers than that?
As much as I am against fat shaming, I am 100 pounds overweight and it is getting to the point where I have no energy to exercise and walking up stairs is exhausting. I recently started the JC program. I was on it in high school, but had to stop because I could no longer afford it. I feel that I am actually getting enough nutrients everyday for the first time in a long time. I am in week three and I have lost about 5 pounds. I just see it as a way of life. If I want to maintain a healthy weight I have to eat less. Period. I am not one of those people who can eat whatever I want and maintain a healthy weight. I planned to lose 100 pounds but I may stop at 50. Depends on how I feel when I get there.
I do have a big issue with the food industry and the medical community. The medical community shames you for being fat, yet the food that is available to most people is junk. Our dairy products, meat and produce are poisoned with toxins. To buy food that is chemical-free costs most people a half a paycheck! The only reason I am able to eat truly healthy now is because I have a household income of $140,000 per year! For two people, that is plenty of $ and my husband and I (he also has a weight problem) can afford any weight loss program we want.
Also there is a failure to define what “healthy” is. For some people 200 lbs. can be a healthy weight. I am not one of those people. My quality of life took a nose dive when my weight went over 200. I set a goal of 138, but that may be too thin. I can weight up to about 150 and be fine. I have never weighed less than 170 in my adult life so I don’t know what being that slim feels like. I may be impossible to maintain. We’ll see, I guess.
And Yo-Yo dieting with that crazy fasting or low carb programs is insane. How can someone actually believe that trying to survive on 800 calories a day or just on apples or juice is healthy! YOU NEED TO EAT ACTUAL FOOD!!!
Most people need to stop reading the latest trendy diet books and see a nutritionist. Worry about giving your body what it needs. JC helps me so that. So far I feel a lot better, which is what is REALLY important.