Here we find a lady in a car looking over at another lady’s butt as she’s leaning over, and since she knows her, she comments on how she’s not nearly as much of a fatty as she used to be. So the formerly fat female says she’s lost weight to the point that her old clothes no longer fit, so she’s donating them. (She must not have owned many clothes, because the bags of clothes are pretty paltry. Or else maybe she was only fat for a few weeks, so she only had enough time to buy a couple of outfits.) But is this such a good idea? Surely it’s nice of her, but most people who lose weight seem to gain it back, and then she’d have to go out and buy all new clothes again while wearing a beach towel since she won’t have any clothes that fit her any longer once she packs the pounds back on in a few weeks. And then she’ll be depressed and embarrassed!
So after she dumps her corpulent clothing in the donation bin, her friend asks her how she lost such a massive amount of weight, and the formerly fat female says she did it by eating mostly whole grain (yeah, right!). Um, whole grains are carbs, and carbs are what tend to pile on the pounds. I would think vegetables and exercise would help more for weight loss, but since this is a commercial for a breakfast cereal… She would have been more believable had she said: “I switched to eating my cereal with skim milk.”
Anyway, right after the lady says she lost weight because of whole grain, the announcer makes the extremely vague and un-disprovable claim: “people who choose more whole grain tend to weight less than those who don’t.” Uh, this is such a vague statement, it’s hard to take it seriously. People who choose more whole grain? Choose whole grain how? And for what? To eat, to buy, to throw at people? And they don’t say these people even eat it: they simply “choose” it! So then they’re basically saying people who make the right kinds of food choices at the supermarket tend to weigh less, and it has nothing to do with the whole grain, or even if they eat it, but rather that they’re simply the kind of people who consciously make more intentionally healthy food choices when they buy food; and this could be food bought for their family, rather than even for themselves to eat. Or at least, with such a vague statement, it could mean that. But yes, I’d venture to guess that people who choose more whole grain foods would tend to be the kinds of people who care more about eating right and being healthy, so this statement may be true, but it doesn’t have much to do with this cereal: it has more to do with the kind of people who eat health food, and what their lifestyle is. And eating this cereal alone will not make you into one of those healthy people.
And they “tend to weigh less”? What the hell does that mean? How do you measure this “tendency”? It’s so vague how they say it, it sounds completely forced and meaningless! And worse, it sounds like they’re wording it this way because they know they might get accused of false advertising if they just came out and said these people do weight less. How about simply saying that healthier people make healthier food choices, and whole grain foods are healthier? That’s a true statement, and it’s not embarrassingly vague.
But at least they didn’t say that if you eat their cereal, along with a better diet and exercise, you’ll lose weight. That’s what those dangerous diet pill ads say. And if you eat a better diet and exercise, you’ll lose weight anyway, so eating the cereal doesn’t matter in that scenario. But I guess what they’re trying to say is that people who make more healthy food choices tend to be healthier, and I’d venture to guess that’s true. But it doesn’t really say much about their cereal, and it’s hardly a good enough reason to buy it. It seems to me that most of the people they’re talking about in this ad (at least in California) “tend to” shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joes, and I doubt they even sell Cheerios of any type (the brand, that is: you can find knock-offs there I’m sure!) at those stores. But this weight loss claim just seems like an exaggeration and a dubious claim.
What I’d recommend for this type of commercial for Multi Grain Cheerios would be something more along the lines with the idea of someone deciding to get healthier, and so they decide to get fresher, more health conscious foods, as well as exercise more often. So after jogging or Yoga or whatever else, they go to the supermarket, and as they’re walking through the cereal aisle (with a basket full of healthy choices), they reach for some cereal, but then they stop and grab the box of Whole Grain Cheerios instead. Then the announcer could say that people who eat health foods are healthier, and that whole grain foods are part of a healthier diet. Then at the end of the ad, we see the person looking slimmer and healthier, and a friend of theirs sees them and comments on how much better they look. Then they could have a slogan that says something about “going with the grain” (like in woodworking, versus going against the grain). So it could end with a product shot of the box of Multi Grain Cheerios, a bowl of it, etc., and the announcer says: “Multi Grain Cheerios: Go with the Grain!” (Has another company used this slogan yet? I haven’t noticed it.) And they could make a campaign about how someone who wanted to get healthier decided to “go with the grain”, and the slogan to "Go with the Grain" implies action also, so it could include exercise in the plan, and encourage the cereal as a good energy source for exercise, and the start of a healthier lifestyle, as well as saying that healthy living is going with the grain, whereas an unhealthy lifestyle is going against the grain, etc.
But here they have the slogan: “More Grains, Less You: Multi Grain Cheerios!” Now, I know this is a weight loss-themed commercial, but this slogan saying: “More Gains, Less You” kind of makes it sound like it will make you less of who you are too, as in personality, will power, etc. At least, that’s partly how it comes across to me. I’m not saying it’s bad; I just think that overweight people sometimes feel insecure and stuff, and like less of who they were, so maybe saying this would be better: “Whole Grains, Less Pounds, More Happiness: Whole Grain Cheerios!” See what I mean?
Here’s the clothes-donating commercial:
This is a much better looking version, but the volume is WAY TOO LOUD!:
