Weight Watchers International Inc. has announced that it has reached a settlement with Jenny Craig to end its advertisement campaign stating that its pre-packaged meals were found superior to those of Weight Watchers.
While Jenny Craig claimed that a study showed its food was superior for weight loss, Weight Watchers argued that there was no such study. This led to a temporary restraining order against Jenny Craig — a good indication that they would prevail on the merits. To win a TRO, you must show a likelihood to prevailing on the merits and ongoing damage from the commercials.
For the story, click here.
I think both these companies should take a cue from Taco Bell:
“As you know, the Drive-Thru Diet® menu is not a weight-loss program. It’s about making different choices. For me, I didn’t want to cut out my fast food so I started choosing Fresco items from the Drive-Thru Diet® menu and making other sensible choices. I reduced my daily calorie and fat intake by 500 calories to 1250 calories a day, and, after two years, I ended up losing 54 pounds! These results aren’t typical, but for me they were fantastic!”
Personally, I don’t believe either company above should be able to make the claims that they do. Both companies offer false promises to people who are often desperate to ” fit ” into societal norms by making claims that food intake alone will make us all cookie cutter images. I am sure that they provide their clients with fabulous eating and possibly excercize plans that, if followed exactly, will produce weight loss. I am sure of this because my aunt took off close to 100 pounds 30 + years ago and has kept the bulk of it off. She followed the Weight Watchers plan of the time and was able to achieve her goal. That being said, being as motivated to lose the pounds as she was, the same results would have occured had she met with a nutritionist or dietician, which would have been free of cost ( Canada remember ).
What these programs tend to ignore is the need for counseling, and the POSSIBLE genetic links ( yep I’m going there again ) that obese people need and pocess.
http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/item/?item_id=103944
Society needs to stop putting the blame on individuals alone and recognise that obesity is a medical condition that requires medical and psychological treatment. I also believe that laws need to be developed that would stop weight loss ” clinics ” from advertising false claims and duping people out of millions of dollars annually.
The real solution is actually a simple recipe….give people access to trained addictions, behavioural, and psychotherapy, liscensed dieticians, and kinesiologists. While this sounds like an expensive cure, it is far less expensive than treating the vast array of medical conditions that obese people are eventually treated for.
It seems to me that they both lost. But I’ll not be weighing the merits of this case.
I think that I’ll need proof. Anyone want to watch Wolfgang while I interview Valarie to see if the claims are valid?