The "new" cult of Weight Watchers

 

I tried to find the Weight Watchers (that's what WW stands for; it's just the rebranding of an old company) commercial featuring the woman with a degree in Nutrition* who went to the WW app TO FIND OUT HOW TO MANAGE HER WEIGHT.  I wondered what I would think of a dentist who went on tv to tell us that he found out how to take care of his teeth through an app- like, what were those years of specialized training for again?  I couldn't find it, but there was something in this ad (yes, it's an ad, not an innocent little "just my story" post, as you'll see in a moment) that really caught my attention.

Actually, it wasn't in the ad at all.  It was in the comments section.  A poster asked "weren't you using another system just a little while ago?" and is told by the creator "yeah, now I've switched to WW!"  The fact that the commenter KNOWS she was using another system a few months ago tells me that she posted about how amazing THAT was.  Now she's posting about how amazing WW is.  Why shouldn't I suspect - or just ASSUME- that in a few months she'll be pitching ANOTHER weight loss system as "amazing?"**  I'm sorry, but I don't see the difference between what this woman is doing and the people who move from ItWorks to Scentsy to CutCo to Amway to LuLaRoe to doTerra to Young Living and each time post to tell us about their incredible success at whatever Multi-Level Marketing Scam they are exploring this month and how it's perfect for all of us- this month. 

Maybe this woman should keep her advice to herself until she actually manages to stick to a program that works for more than three months or so.  Right now it just looks like she's willing to shill for any company willing to toss her a few bucks here and there.  

*which is not really a thing, any more than "Life Coach" is really a thing. It's just that Americans in particular either have no money, or money to burn. 

**Here's this same woman  in February 2021 telling us about her fabulous success with "Bright Line Eating." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBaiXnlji6Y

 

This Salonpas Commercial is just TOO much.....

 

Is it really feasible to ANYBODY that three middle-aged doctors sitting down for lunch in what I guess is a medical office building cafeteria would discuss a question like "what are you recommending for muscle pain?"  And if it is, is it at all realistic that the doctors would agree on an over-the-counter menthol patch and not some expensive pill or injection?  PLEASE!

"My patients really like these patches because they work up to twelve hours..." which means that by the time it's been demonstrated that the band-aid doesn't really solve the problem, the patients have to call for another appointment, and another round of paperwork can be filled out for the health insurance company?  And your patients like the patches SO MUCH that you keep a box of them in your pocket at all times, so you can draw it like a six-shooter on the off-chance that one of your fellow doctors forgets that they are themselves a doctor and asks a question like "what do you recommend for muscle pain?"

Someone tell T-Mobile that Diversity in Advertising can be taken too far!

 

The only thing dumber than showing a black guy playing hockey is showing a black guy in the stands cheering on a hockey game.  Hey, T-Mobile?  It's really ok if the commercial features just white people.  Nobody is going to throw a hissy-fit if you show two white hockey players- only 6.8% of hockey players in the United States are black.  Or a white couple in the stands (well, nobody worth listening too, anyway.)  White people still date other white people, like black people still date other black people (just over 8% of married couples in the United States are biracial, not quite sure why almost 100% of married couples on TV commercials are.  Then again, almost 100% of people on TV commercials live in multimillion-dollar suburban mansions or condos so what do I know?)  

It's ok to present a realistic picture of life in America every once in a while.  I know, hard to imagine, but totally true. Trust me.  

Just make another commercial with the same stupid idea except with basketball featuring black people.  To quote one of your competitors, It's Not Complicated.  

Oh, and while we're at it, why is the couple in the stands bundled up like they are freezing?  I've been in hockey arenas.  Just because the game is being played on ice doesn't mean that watching a game is an uncomfortable, cold experience.  Have the people in this ad ever actually experienced reality, like, ever?

So where's the Upgrade?

 

It's just a debt consolidation loan you give you yourself.  It's moving debt from one creditor to another.  It does absolutely nothing to help you get a handle on your debt; in fact, it does the opposite by allowing you to pretend that debt is smaller because it's now one large payment instead of a bunch of small ones, spread out over a longer period of time (which means you pay more in interest) so you can continue to live in a fantasy where your spending choices have no real consequences and you have more spending power than you have in reality.

This is how poor people stay poor.  There's no Upgrade here, and there's certainly nothing new here.  I still get blank checks from Debt Consolidation companies encouraging me to shift debt (that I don't have) over to them so they can have a steady income and I can feel free to spend spend spend.  They get torn up and thrown in the trash because I'm not a child and I know how much money I have and how to control my spending.  This commercial is not aimed at me.  It's aimed at people who are stupid with their money and determined to stay that way.  Hard Pass. 

I guess the chapter where Larry David failed to invest in Tulips didn't make the final cut?

Anyone else sick to death of multimillionaires who wouldn't blink an eye if they lost what most of us make over the course of a lifetime telling us that if we don't invest in cryptocurrency we're Frightened-of-the-Future, Ignorant Losers who will Be Left Behind and probably Deserve to be Poor Anyway?

Larry David, Tom Brady, Matt Damon etc. are perfectly welcome to go chasing crypto-nonsense because they couldn't care less if it drops 50 percent in value because Elon Musk makes an offhanded joke on a late-night TV show, but 99 percent of us kind of count on our investment portfolios to provide for a decent retirement and don't see money as something to take for a spin because This Looks Like The Newest Big Thing.  If/when crypto tanks (repeatedly) over the next years (months,) well, these guys have already cashed their endorsement checks, have tons of money squirreled away in offshore tax havens, and won't be around for comment (Larry David might "entertain" us with a delightful(/s) "whaddayagonnado?" which I'm sure will thrill the YouTube mouth-breathers, but won't be a whole lot of solace for the middle-class suckers who decided to take what amounted to a Triple Dog Dare and put actual money into unsecured nonsense with a cool, futuristic name because some recognizable face on TV questioned their manhood and patriotism if they played it safe like all those scaredy-cats did in the old days. )

Well, excuse me, but I'm not Like Larry in the respect that I don't have money to burn (or, to put it more succinctly, to lose.)  And I'm not your audience, that being easily-manipulated rubes who assume that if a guy can write comedy, throw a football, or dribble lines before stepping back and letting his stunt double pretend to beat people up, he MUST be a genius investor.  And just as I have not purchased a sportscar, pickup truck, Beats by Dre or an iPhone 11 simply because someone on TV told me that only losers fail to do so, I am going to pass on this Awesome, Historical opportunity to ride the wave of Crypto.  I would have missed the Dutch Tulip Bubble too, I'm sure.  

(And I'm not even going to get into the whole Insult to our Intelligence that is the storyline in this stupid ad.  The wheel wasn't "invented" in ancient Egypt- like artificially produced fire, it's one of those things that predate written history by centuries.  Edison didn't invent the light bulb.  And the less said about the pretty damn blatantly racist cell phone bit the better.  Our country is dumb enough without this contribution,  Crypto-cons.)

Insane Buick Trophy Wife is Insane

 

It took me a few views before I realized that this insane woman was actually talking to "versions" of herself as she enjoyed the features in her brand-new Buick.  She does not, in fact, have three similar-looking Fellow Trophy Wife Friends- or, if she does, she left them at the spinning class to get into their own flashy cars and head home to Sugar Daddy. 

I was too busy noting the whole "brutal spinning class" thing and how gag-inducing that was- pretty wealthy woman at a spinning class in the middle of the damn day needing her car to give her butt a massage while she blathers to herself about how awesome her car is.  Talk about privilege and First World problems.  

"You really outdid yourself."  I don't know what this means.  This guy clearly wasn't around to hear her first "worry" about parallel parking and then let the car solve the problem for her.  Is he seeing this car for the first time, and is her purchase of a Buick what he means by "outdoing" herself?  So she bought the car, went to spinning class, and then headed off to meet him?  I don't get it.

I also don't get why this woman's various manifestations of herself are all dressed like successful businesswomen.  Is this fantasy projection, or what?  Does this woman like to pretend that the Buick, the spinning classes, and everything else she has is the product of her own efforts, or what?  I mean, they kind of are- she kept herself young and cute long enough to snag that meal ticket, after all.  But imagining herself in a business suit with glasses that cry out "intelligent, capable, NOT A TROPHY WIFE" is a bit much.   You are what You are.  Deal with it. 

Priceline's "No Way" Commercial kind of says it all

 

Why would I ever listen to someone who aggressively closes my laptop to bleat a commercial for Priceline at me?

Why would I use this stupid, buggy, BS "service" for anything as important as a vacation?

Why does anyone think that ads like this convince anyone of anything except that the company that made it hates us?