Can you imagine how the meetings went down at the corporate headquarters for Weight Watchers last summer as they were brainstorming ways to extend the branding of their calorie-counting, fat-eschewing weight loss program from being commonly stereotyped as something exclusively “for the ladies” to a radical new strategy of marketing directly to men desiring weight loss? Hmmmm, who’s out there who we can hire to serve as our celebrity spokesman that needs to lose weight, can communicate well with and relate to a male audience, and be personable enough on camera to pull off the magic of marketing that will send millions of new customers (and dollars!) our way when we roll out our television campaign ads as 2012 begins with all those people going on New Year’s resolutions? After several moments of deafening silence as they deliberated on this, one junior marketing exec who’s a big fan of the National Basketball Association (NBA) raises his hand and chimes in with “How about Charles Barkley?” After several minutes of raucous laughter from the upper echelon within the Weight Watchers company, they all start looking around at each other with wide-eyed excitement as if they had just struck gold with this bit of advertising genius.
After all, Barkley is a popular former NBA superstar who has gone on to have quite a successful television gig as a brilliant, on-the-spot color commentator on TNT and NBC Sports. He occasionally makes headlines for saying some rather controversial statements to and about other pro teams and athletes and he never backs down from a good media fight. Here’s his take a few years back on then-Cleveland Cavalier, now-Miami Heat NBA all-star and MVP Lebron James wanting to be traded to another team:
That’s typical Charles Barkley. He is very well-known for saying some of the most off-the-wall statements sometimes. He’s probably most famous for his rather unique pronunciation of the word “terrible”:
So the Weight Watchers people probably knew what they were getting themselves into hiring this guy to be the face of their company to the male population. Or maybe they didn’t. They certainly chose the right man if they wanted someone who could exude confidence in himself and stir the pot. This video of Charles’ auto-tuned song “I May Be Wrong (But I Doubt It)” says it all:
So, in case you’ve been living the life of a hobbit over the past couple of weeks, here’s the former “Round Mound Of Rebound” touting the impact that Weight Watchers has made on his weight since he started following their plan in late 2011 in a series of spots called “Lose Like A Man”:
And he’s been speaking glowingly about his Weight Watchers experience:
You’ve heard me say it early and often over the years and I’ll say it again now. I applaud anyone who is seeking weight loss and, more importantly, better health by changing their lifestyle habits nutritionally and physically to put themselves in a better position to be at peak condition. Finding the plan that will work for you, following it exactly and then never quitting it is essential to making permanent and lasting changes happen. But I am always somewhat skeptical of celebrity endorsements like this one for Weight Watchers by Charles Barkley because you can’t help but wonder just how genuine the commitment to this plan really is. There were two things that happened on television over the past week that lead me to believe Sir Charles is growing weary of Weight Watchers already and may not be doing this gig to improve his health as much as he is to expand his bank account.
I was watching Saturday Night Live on January 7, 2012 when Barkley was hosting and in his opening monologue he talked quite extensively about how his Weight Watchers experience has been going. I couldn’t believe his public admission about one of the major flaws of following a low-fat, low-calorie plan like Weight Watchers:
Yes, I understand SNL is a comedy show and that Barkley was trying to be funny. But one of the things that makes comedy funny is an element of truth in the punchline. I’m not at all surprised if he is indeed “hungry” and “starving” on Weight Watchers because everybody in that studio audience and at home knows it’s true if they’ve been on a plan like this before. They all laughed because they’ve tried to eat low-fat, low-calorie and have suffered through the inevitable hunger that awaits them. Far too many diet plans leave dieters hungry because they deprive their body of the satiating macronutrients like fat and protein while loading them up on the hunger-stoking macronutrients like carbohydrates. Do you think the Weight Watchers folks were happy about their brand new spokesman telling people even in jest that they’re gonna be “starving” when they follow this program to lose weight? What’s that forehead-slapping sound coming out of New York City?
As if the SNL bit weren’t enough damage control for the Weight Watchers people to deal with, then Charles Barkley got caught being Charles Barkley again during an off-the-air (or so he thought) admission on TNT’s coverage of a recent Miami Heat-Atlanta Hawks NBA basketball game that being their spokesman is an even “bigger scam” than getting to watch sports for a living:
Now, I don’t have a problem with anyone trying to take care of themselves financially by brokering deals with companies that want to use your brand to help market their products. Charles Barkley is a brand whether he wants to admit it or not. And a lot of guys really like him for his humor, honesty, and coming across as being one of us. But with him basically stating the only reason he’s really doing this Weight Watchers gig is to make money, that’s a problem. Sure, he’s lost weight and I’m happy that he has. But as someone who also lost a substantial amount of weight on a calorie-restricted, low-fat diet in 1999, that way of eating is simply not sustainable. Hunger will drive cravings and there will come a point in your life that you will succumb to that desperate desire to feed your body. Unfortunately, it will most likely be fast food, junk food and lots of it! I’ve been there, done that before and I’m afraid we’ll see the same thing happen to Barkley in the not-too-distant future.
I wish Charles Barkley well in his pursuit of being healthy as he approaches his 50th birthday. But the average, everyday male consumer out there who is watching him tout the benefits of following Weight Watchers in all of these TV ads needs to know it’s all just one big facade. As alluring as experiencing weight loss can be for those men who are concerned about the future of their health, this may not be the best plan for you because of the hunger and frustration that comes from eating this way. Sure, you may lose a few pounds but what good is a plan that you can’t stick with for life? That’s why low-carb is perfect for those who failed on Weight Watchers. There is a certain appeal to following the low-carb lifestyle when frustration sets in from being on programs like Weight Watchers. To make matters worse, Weight Watchers now considers McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets a “healthy” option because it fits within their “points” system. Say what? Looks like they could stand to learn the dirty truth about what’s in that “chicken” product. As Barkley would say, “That’s turrible, you knuckleheads!”
Do you think the Weight Watchers marketing team is wishing they had chosen somebody like John Goodman, Kevin James or Philip Seymour Hoffman instead? Or is this all a part of their scheme to conjure up some free viral marketing? I’d love to have you chime in on what you think in the comments section below.
