Magical Pills
I’m sure most of you have read about the latest fiasco that Jillian Michaels, trainer on The Biggest Loser (TBL), is embroiled in. She’s being sued in two different cases because the weight loss pills she endorces (Maximum Strength Calorie Control™ and Maximum Strength Fat Burner™) are apparently failing to work as advertised.
Evidently you take these pills before eating or working out and they promise to make you feel fuller and burn fat without any additional effort. Combine marketing hype with a concoction of ingredients and you have a weight loss magic pill … or do you? This style of pill has been copied hundreds of times, just look at any supplement shelf in your supermarket or vitamin store. Despite the rampant reproduction and rebranding of these pills, America is still a hugely obese country.
I don’t know what’s worse about this situation, the fact that these plaintiffs actually bought into the marketing hype of the pill or the fact that Jillian put her name on the pills.
As most of you have likely have deduced from my previous posts I’m a fan of TBL and actually of Jillian as trainer. While I don’t agree with the extreme measures these people take to lose weight (<1200 calorie days with 6+ hours of exercise) I am a fan of the inspiration that the show brings to overweight people. I’m also a fan of the no-nonsense training style of Jillian. She calls it as she sees it and doesn’t take shit from anyone, qualities I aspire towards.
What shocks me most about this whole situation is that Jillian put her name on these products. She of all people knows there is no magic pill when losing weight. There is only hard work, healthy eating, and plenty of exercise or other non sedentary activity. She’s helped hundreds of people lose massive amounts of weight and change their lives yet she’s marketing magic pills.
One could maybe try to write this off as the fault of her management firm, I’m sure she has one. If you look at her twitter feed however you can see some interesting things. She’s been working on a new pilot inspired by TBL called Losing It. She’s also been reviewing some new fitness products/gimics to release under her brand as well as giving advice on taking her supplements. She’s not only well aware of how her brand is being used she’s in full control of its direction.
I am not against Jillian leveraging her brand, heck I think she’s foolish if she doesn’t. I do however expect someone to make sane sensible decisions when they’re as influential as she is. Her voice, style, and image has entered the cultural consciousness whether we want to admit it or not. Because she wields an ever increasing following she should strive to improve the image of the fitness industry and not duplicate the snake oil sales(wo)man so often seen in todays fitness gurus. She should also strive to educate America and be a spokeswoman for health and fitness instead of misinforming an already confused nation of overeaters.
I think that The Anti-Jared nailed it in his recent piece on Jillian when he said:
I just think once you take away her spandex, pointing and yelling in front of the camera, and popularity, all you have is someone who does not understand what it is like to be “truly” overweight. If she did, she would never put her face on pills.
Had she ever been overweight and tried these types of weight-loss products, as so many of us have, I’d think she’d never endorse them … she might even speak out against them.
This failure to truly understand and sympathize with her biggest audience has really changed my outlook on her as a person. I’m still conflicted on my viewpoint of her as a trainer however as her DVD’s really gives me some great workouts. I guess time will tell depending on how and if she reacts to these lawsuits.
