Tag Archives: marketing

Medifast’s Become Yourself Campaign Puts Dieters Face-to-Face with Their Former Selves

The first month of 2024 is already winding down. How is your New Year’s resolution going? If you’ve chosen a healthier lifestyle and have stuck to it, fantastic! But the odds are against most of us following through for any extended period of time.

To really find lasting change, we have to look deep inside ourselves. In the case of the first ever national advertising campaign from Medifast, three people did exactly that, and share the experience in an innovative video series that cleverly splices together conversations between their old unhealthy and new leaner selves.

If you are able to lose weight and be healthier, what if you could have a conversation with your former self?

While many big weight loss ad campaigns are attached to celebrity endorsements, this one metaphorically turns the spotlight around on “we the people” to see how we can find inspiration within ourselves. Medifast’s “Become Yourself” series includes the stories of Kimberley Vandlen, Tina Shelley, and Joseph Garcia. (more…)

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Jason

Do We Only Eat What Big Food Tells Us To?

One of the most widely circulated pieces of advice for effective (meaning healthy) grocery shopping is to steer around the perimeter of the store where nutritious foods are traditionally on display. But food makers and the stores that sell their products aren’t happy just to sit still and not try to influence your buying habits.

Food ad spending in the U.S. rests at about $7 billion a year. Not to mention, the Newspaper Association of America reports about $1.5 billion is spent by food companies each year in newspapers and mailed circulars.

Billion with a “b” comes with a pretty hefty influence. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a UK study found that people alter their meal plan according to what products their grocery store is promoting.

Back Stateside, a new study evaluated the types of foods promoted by supermarkets chains and their corresponding share of advertising space in 2024 sales circulars. The food group that was given the heaviest promotion on the front page of supermarket sales circulars was meat with about 40 percent of the ads. Fruits and vegetables were each given about 10 percent of the sampled advertising space. (more…)

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Jason

eDiets Merges With As Seen On TV and Signs CeeLo Green Endorsement

Not only are all of us making big changes and plans for the new year, but eDiets is doing so, too. One of the more familiar names in dieting, and one of the first to take the industry online, is finalizing a merger with the As Seen on TV brand. The initial announcement was made last fall and will soon complete a stock-for-stock buyout that will remove eDiets as a public company and make it a wholly owned subsidiary of the direct marketing giant.

“It’s an intriguing business acquisition, for a TV company to own a diet company” said Steve Rogai, CEO of As Seen on TV, when we spoke him this week about the merger. He explained that with eDiets being a direct marketing company that sells a food product and As Seen on TV selling a variety of consumer goods direct to consumer, it makes this new business a “synergistic fit.”

eDiets’ performance in recent years hasn’t been remarkable. When the initial report was made in August, InvestorPlace.com reports that eDiets was being purchased “for 80 cents a share — roughly double what the micro-cap stock had been selling for.”

Rogai commented that eDiets has had its ups and downs, “sometimes more down than up.” He also described this merger as a smart business move that would save eDiets more than one million dollars a year by no longer being a public company.

As for the meal delivery industry as a whole, it’s profitable and will continue to be so. Per a May 2024 report by John LaRosa’s Marketdata Enterprises, he told us they had “identified approximately 30 companies participating in the meal delivery business. We estimated the market’s value at $925 million.” At that time he also projected this segment of the diet market to reach $1.09 billion in revenue by 2024.

What can we expect to see for eDiets in this new year? Not only are they working to introduce a more competitive meal delivery option, but they’ve already signed and announced an endorsement deal with entertainer CeeLo Green. A judge on the Voice and soon be the face of his own Las Vegas show, Loberace, CeeLo made it known late last year that he wanted to get healthy in 2024. (more…)

Posted on January 4, 2024 by Natalie K

Medifast CFO Resigns, Stock Shares Plunge

Medifast Inc. reported last week that its chief financial officer Edward Powers plans to step down. Powers is resigning just six weeks after the company’s former CFO Brendan Connors stepped down on November 13, which analysts believe has greatly affected the company’s stocks.

As reported on December 26, Medifast’s stock shares have plummeted 13 percent to its lowest value in two years at just $25.50. The Wall Street Journal reports this makes the stock the worst performer in the Standard & Poor’s Composite 1500 index.

Powers promises to leave the company no later than January 4. According to reports his resignation from Medifast is for a desire to pursue other interests, namely to take a job in the construction-tool industry in the greater Baltimore area. Information on any further reasoning has not yet been released.

Even as we head in to the biggest season for weight loss brands, another diet company affected by recent stock exchange drops is HerbaLife. (more…)

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Dana

9 Worst Obesity Prevention Ads of 2024

As a consumer, you are subjected to around 5,000 advertisements every day, according to the New York Times. Without ads, businesses and organizations would have no way to promote their products, services, and ideas. With that much noise, ads continue to reach a point where they’ll cross any boundary just to be seen, heard, and stand out, and we see that especially where ads for obesity prevention and weight management are concerned.

We compiled the worst obesity prevention ads of 2024. Taking a look at the ads, we asked ourselves, why would these messages ever come to market? And, what would make companies want to advertise their ideas or products in such tasteless, thoughtless ways? The state of Georgia and Active Life Movement are two ads we’ll feature that really missed the mark. However, there is one ad that took the number one spot as the best obesity prevention ad, and that belongs to Nike.

The Worst Obesity Prevention Ads of 2024

The “Stop Child Obesity” ads in Georgia may have done one thing the organization wanted it to, and that was get attention. However, the attention was more backlash than action. The series of ads and billboards were targeted toward parents, but they made the mistake of putting photos of children on the billboards along with messages calling children out and making them feel ashamed for being overweight, also known as fat shaming. With tag lines like “Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid,” the ads created no value for the consumer and the message was read as if you are overweight then you should be ashamed of your weight. Although the ads were never intended to hurt or offend people, it did in such a way that the boards were removed. (more…)

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Samantha

Retrofit Debuts 2024 TV Commercial with 2 Weight Loss Success Stories

“I had tried every imaginable weight loss program,” said Juan Carlos Duque. “I successfully lost weight quickly. The same was true with Retrofit. The difference is I put the weight back on with the others.”

Fifty-seven weeks ago, Duque weighed 251 pounds. Today, at 43, he is down 37 pounds and he credits a lot of that to Retrofit. To date he’s lost 15 percent of his body weight, and that’s a promise the weight loss company makes to each of its new clients. They can help you lose 10 to 15 percent of your weight in one year, and the best part is, you’ll keep it off!

Duque told us his original goal was 225 pounds, but now at 214 and in week five of his second year, he said “I’ve never experienced that level of sustainability.”

It’s the same thing Amy Williamson is experiencing, too. She’s a mom of two young children who found she hadn’t lost much from her first pregnancy when she learned of the second. She had planned to go back to Weight Watchers, on which she’d lost 35 pounds twice. But now, after losing 40 pounds in a year, she says, “Retrofit approaches weight loss not as a diet plan.” (more…)

Posted on December 24, 2023 by Natalie K

Zumba Named Company of the Year by Inc. Magazine

Equal parts dance and aerobics, Zumba has taken over the fitness world. Maybe the secret ingredient to making exercise fun has been discovered. Zumba was just named Inc. Magazine’s Company of the Year this week. This following this summer’s accolade of being named the largest fitness brand in the world.

While Zumba holds its own as a fitness class, it clearly stands up as a very successful business as well. Inc. reported this week that the Zumba company has an estimated valuation of more than $500 million. That tally comes from some very rapid growth. The CEO, Alberto Perlman, stated in the Inc. article that the company grew 4,000 percent from 2024 to 2024. Additionally the company grew 750 percent in the past three years. Holy Zumba, Batman! Is anything else in the business world, anything at all doing that well? (more…)

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Lacy

Looking at Fatty Foods May Make You Fat

By Bob Greene for TheBestLife.com

You already know that eating fatty foods can cause you to pack on pounds, but a recent study suggests that simply seeing fatty foods can lead to cravings that can result in weight gain.

In the study, researchers at the University of Southern California showed 13 obese women images of different foods–both healthy (fruits and veggies) and not-so-healthy (hamburgers, cookies and cakes)–as well as non-food photos. They then asked the women to rate their hunger level and desire for sweet and savory foods. During the experiment, researchers did an MRI scan of participants’ brains. The researchers found that the brains’ reward and appetite control centers lit up when the women looked at the images of fatty foods.

Eating or drinking while being exposed to these types of images—it’s just like nibbling while you’re watching TV or browsing Pinterest, for instance—seems to worsen the effects. In the study, researchers gave the women a sugary drink of glucose (similar to a can of soda) or fructose (another sweetener), to sip while looking at the various images. After slurping down both drinks, women felt hungrier and had a stronger desire for sweet and savory foods. Fructose seemed to do this even more so than glucose. (more…)

Posted on December 5, 2023 by BestLifeDiet

Sensa’s False Advertising Costs Them $800,000

Nine counties in California weren’t buying the “too good to be true” claims of Sensa, also known as “the sprinkle diet.” The counties took the product to court arguing that the company made false claims regarding their product’s weight loss efficacy. The attorneys won and now Sensa has to pay.

The counties of Santa Cruz, Alameda, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma took the company, Intelligent Beauty, Inc., the makers of Sensa, to court this week after the product had freely advertised that users could lose weight by sprinkling flavored crystals on their food. As part of the settlement, Sensa, can no longer make any claims of weight loss without having scientific evidence to back the claims. The company was required to pay $800,000 in penalties and will go toward the enforcement of consumer protection laws. (more…)

Posted on November 27, 2023 by Lacy

Ab Circle Pro is a Fraud and Must Pay up to $25 Million in Refunds

Depending on the number of unsatisfied Ab Circle Pro customers who come forward, the fitness gimmick brand stands to pay out $15 million to $25 million in refunds, per a settlement between the brand and the FTC. The government agency has cracked down on over-hyped health claims in recent years to protect citizens from idiotic, empty promises like the Ab Circle Pro delivers. 

Honestly? Three minutes a day of mild exercise to lose 10 pounds in two weeks should be filed under “too good to be true,” and it is. The FTC isn’t having any of that noise.

According to the announcement on the FTC.gov site, “the defendants promised that a three-minute workout on the Ab Circle Pro – a fiberglass disk with stationary handlebars and two knee rests that roll on the edge of the disk, allowing consumers to kneel and rotate side-to-side – was equivalent to doing 100 sit ups. In the infomercial, pitchwoman Jennifer Nicole Lee compared the Ab Circle Pro to a gym workout, saying, “You can either do 30 minutes of abs and cardio or just three minutes a day. The choice is yours.”

Nothing is ever a substitute for hard work, not even a nearly non-existent workout. With a calorie-reduced diet and exercising at least 30 minutes moderate to high intensity workouts most days of the week, a healthy rate of weight loss is one to two pounds each week. A claim of 10 pounds in 2 weeks is not only not realistic but it isn’t healthy either. As far as toning your abs goes, well, that takes a lot more commitment to overall lifestyle than three minutes a day. If your entire workout regimen can happen in less time than a TV commercial break – you’re doing it wrong.

“Three minutes time is less than a warm up. Your muscles don’t even get loose in 3 minutes time – it takes about 5 to 10 minutes,” commented fitness expert Kelly Turner. “But let’s assume you did 5-10 minutes of light exercise before you hopped on. I can do 71 crunches in a minutes. Three sets of 71 crunches isn’t even an entire ab workout. No exercise, no matter what you are doing, is intense enough to create massive changes within your body in three minutes- even if done every single day.” (more…)

Posted on November 19, 2023 by Natalie K

Retrofit Gains $8 Million in VC Funding; Launches Retrofit My Company

Just a year after opening its web-based doors, Chicago-based Retrofit announced today the raising of $8 million in venture capital funds. The fund raising was led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), and brings the company to a total of $10.7 million in Series A funds. Other investors include Correlation Ventures, Hyde Park Angels, New World Ventures, and I2A Fund. It’s a move that will allow one of the most tech-minded brands in weight loss to grow to serve a broader clientele. retrofit weight loss program

“DFJ is a great backer to have,” commented Jonathan George, former CEO of Boxcar. “Their resources and knowledge will help turn Retrofit into an even bigger winner than they already are. From the looks of this, it’s a growth round that will help propel them into the future. These type of rounds don’t happen without significant traction.”

The move comes in time for Retrofit to make a major play when the January new-year diet season kicks off. Today’s announcement comes in hand with the release of their Retrofit My Company contest, which will position the brand in a corporate environment.

The company will give away $300,000 worth of complimentary services to the company that wins.  According to Retrofit, “A high profile panel of judges chooses the company and up to 100 employees at that company will get their own expert weight loss teams, fun wireless devices, and full Retrofit program that is helping more than 90% of clients lose weight.”

CEO Jeff Hyman pointed out in a press release that companies have $1500 per year in additional health care expenses for each overweight or obese employee. It’s long been reported that a healthier staff is a happier and more productive staff, not to mention one that saves the company money. (more…)

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Natalie K