It’s understandable that diet companies would want to incorporate celebrities in their marketing plans. Consumers believe that they “know” famous people — especially forthcoming ones like Valerie Bertinelli (Jenny Craig), Jennifer Hudson (Weight Watchers) and Marie Osmond (Nutrisystem) — and can be inspired by them.
But employing celebrities can be a double-edged sword. When a company
advertises a successful but anonymous dieter — say, Melissa K. from Fairfield, Conn., who lost 50 pounds— its target audience never learns how Melissa ultimately fared. Did she keep the weight off? Did she gain the 50 pounds back, as well as 50 more? Only she and her acquaintances will ever know.
Famous people, however, play out their weight struggles under glaring lights. It’s hard to forget commercials of the actress and former Jenny Craig spokeswoman Kirstie Alley lustily drooling over the program’s sanctioned fettuccine, or of her triumphant disrobing on “Oprah” to reveal her new bikini body in pantyhose.It’s equally hard to forget photos of Ms. Alley, after regaining the lost weight and then some, again on “Oprah”: this time more conservatively dressed and contrite. Or, more recently, falling with an audible thud during a lift on “Dancing With the Stars.”
Last year, another diet program, the Fresh Diet, parted ways with its famous “spokesdieter,” the pop singer Carnie Wilson, after she gained weight while under contract.
“It didn’t work out with Carnie,” said Zalmi Duchman, chief executive for the Fresh Diet, which delivers fresh meals daily across the nation. “She dropped like 20 pounds in the first three months. Then she, I mean, she had to go off of it. There’s no question. She might have eaten the meals, but she ate the meals with a lot of other stuff. She started a cheesecake company.”
Mr. Duchman said he didn’t fire Ms. Wilson; he chose not to renew her contract. (Ms. Wilson and Ms. Alley declined to comment for this article.)
The specter of Ms. Alley’s and Ms. Wilson’s failure on these diet programs has done nothing to deter Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig from gathering a slew of other celebrities to represent them.
But Nutrisystem is being more cautious. The company’s current spokeswoman and spokesman, Ms. Osmond and Dan Marino, the former Miami Dolphin, were not used as guinea pigs, said Stacie Mullen, its executive of celebrity marketing, but were approached after news reports that they used the program. “We have gained our celebrity spokespeople through them being real clients first,” Ms. Mullen said. “We learned about Marie as a client of ours through an entertainment magazine.”
Jenny Craig is pursuing celebrity spokeswomen more voraciously. “We are interested in helping any celebrity lose weight,” said Dana Fiser, the chief executive for Jenny Craig. Indeed, the company currently employs six celebrities: Ms. Bertinelli, Ms. Fisher, the actress Sara Rue, Jason Alexander, the actress Nicole Sullivan and the reality show personality Ross Mathews.
Not everyone agrees with this strategy. Cheryl Callan, chief marketing officer for Weight Watchers, said she suspected that what she called her competitors’ “parade” of celebrities is a method of distraction.
“It may be about spreading risk,” she said. In other words, if Ms. Bertinelli regains weight, members of the public won’t notice because they’re too captivated by Ms. Fisher’s success.
Collecting celebrity spokeswomen is not the Weight Watchers way. In its history, there have been only four celebrity spokeswomen for the company: Lynn Redgrave, Jenny McCarthy, Sarah Ferguson and, now, Ms. Hudson, who said she has lost 80 pounds on the plan.TAFFY BRODESSER-AKNER
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