› return to nutrition

Weight Watchers Partnership For Essential Nutrition

At the time they came to us in late 2003, Weight Watchers, a scientifically-based and valuable weight loss program, was suffering at the hands of the consumer buy-in to the new Atkins-inspired low-carb movement. In Weight Watchers eyes, the Atkins approach was not just without scientific merit, but it also posed long-term health dangers for people who used the diet.

Yes, Weight Watchers understood, people on the Atkins diet lose weight in the short-term. But their goal was to re-establish sanity in the diet discussion; to get people to understand that the issue is not weight loss, but healthy weight loss and sustainable weight loss. The reason for losing weight—to improve your health—needed to be re-inserted into the conversation which had simply become a shorthand discussion of "how much, how quick." Because the elimination of fruits and vegetables posed real health dangers to consumers, and because a low-carb or no-carb diet was not sustainable and therefore destined to lead people right back to weight gain when they stopped, Weight Watchers wanted us to help journalists take a far more critical look at this issue.

 

 

OBJECTIVES

• Help educate consumers and journalists about the dangers inherent in a no-carb diet.
• Assist health organizations in educating consumers about why they support science-based weight loss.

PROGRAM

• Creation of a third party coalition, the Partnership for Essential Nutrition (PEN), comprised of 11 well-respected health organizations to lead the education effort about the dangers of the low-carb movement. Included in the coalition were the American Obesity Association, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, the American Institute for Cancer Research and Shape Up America!
• Spokespeople were trained and made available to the media to discuss the issue, including low-carb refugees, people who had experienced health problems because of those diets.
• A press conference was held by PEN at the National Press Club in DC to outline their position.
• A web site was created to provide information to all interested people about Essential Nutrition, and to answer their, and journalists', questions.
• A Public Service Announcement was created which aired more than 400 times at no charge educating people about this issue.
• A journalist truth squad was created at Ruder Finn that responded immediately whenever incorrect facts about low-carb diets were printed.

RESULTS

• Total media impressions topped 300 million.
• The PSA was used on more than 300 U.S. stations and was picked up in countries as diverse as Pakistan, New Zealand and the U.K.
• The "low-carb" movement has largely collapsed on itself, and science and balance have returned to the diet discussion.