Weight-Loss and the Weight of the Media

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Recommended: The mass media that people are exposed to, and interact with, has a measurable impact on their health choices and outcomes

Weight-Loss and the Weight of the Media

The media bombards us with advertisements and articles about weight-loss supplements. We cannot turn on the television or radio without seeing or hearing an advertisement for Dexatrim, and we cannot flip through a magazine without seeing an advertisement or article about Metabolife. The manner in which different media sources treat weight-loss supplements greatly influences the public's perception of these products. This essay will examine a Newsweek article entitled "Mad about Metabolife," an advertisement for Hydroxycut from Mademoiselle, and a radio advertisement for Carbolife Gold to illustrate the manner in which the media presents the use of dietary supplements to promote weight loss.

Would you rather exercise for an hour and a half five days a week and not see any signs of weight loss, or take a pill once a day and begin to see dramatic weight loss in the first week? If you are like most people who want to lose weight, you want to lose the weight as quickly and easily as possible, and therefore would choose the latter. Advertisers and columnists are aware of people's desires to lose weight quickly, and indeed, all three media sources examined begin their advertisement or article by describing how weight-loss supplements promote fast and easy weight loss. In large, bold letters at the top of the advertisement for Hydroxycut is a quotation that says, "Losing 31 pounds was so easy with Hydroxycut!" (MuscleTech, 2001, p. 175). Then, in slightly smaller letters, the testimonial continues with, "I never dreamed I'd be able to lose 31 pounds so easily, but Hydroxycut made it happen" (MuscleTech, 2001, p. 175). Similarly, the radio advertisement for Carbolife Gold begi...

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...her hand, is selling knowledge about weight-loss supplements. The article provides the public with the information about weight-loss supplements that the advertisers attempt to withhold. In effect, the advertisements and the magazine article are trying to sell the public opposing information, and in this sense the advertisements and the article are two sides of the same coin. However, the greater preponderance of advertisements for weight-loss supplements as compared to media sources that address the risks of such supplements weights the coin in favor of the supplement manufactures, and such uneven odds may be dangerous to consumers.

Works Cited

Carbolife Gold (2001, Oct 7).KRTI 106.7.

Cowley, F., Reno, J. & Underwood, A. (1999, Oct. 4). Mad About Metabolife.

Newsweek, 52-53. MuscleTech R & D. (2001, Oct). Hydroxycut. Mademoiselle, 175.

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