WeightWatchers

I feel sad about this:

The body positivity movement, + ozempic (and other GLP-1 weight loss drugs) + the pandemic (WeightWatchers apparently was built on in-person support groups) meant that WeightWatchers went from $1.5 billion in revenue in 2018 to $770 million for this year.

As a result, they’re trying to pivot to being a telehealth company, which (primarily?) sells the weight-loss drugs.

On their walls it used to say it’s choice, not chance. and now CEO Sistani’s quoted saying that’s wrong. Also from Sistani We live in this clickbait world now where everything needs to try to come across in 15 to 30 seconds, which is whjy our marketing is so difficult.

I don’t have any personal connection to WeightWatchers, but one thing I’m projecting on them is that they used to stand for empowerment through choice, diligence, restraint, and doing the difficult work of changing long-standing habits. And now it seems like they don’t stand for anything. It looks like they’re just at the whim of market forces and trying to fit in and still make money. Why do I care? I don’t know—but I feel sad, I think that they’re augmenting and accelerating a change which seems to not address deeper features; which seems to perpetuate unconsciousness and the grey. Aspects of the body positivity movement seem right to me: our beauty standards were ridiculous. Aspects felt like it went to far: there are physical and mental health issues that can be overlooked by focusing only on self-acceptance. I think it was an attempt to move towards more consciousness, and I respect and appreciate that.

I like to play the game if it were me, what would I do? not because I think I could actually do it—I know nothing about the weight-loss market, the customers, the business model, etc!—but because I hate to criticize something without thinking up some alternative, even if it’s loco. But in this case my solution is predictable: I’d try to pivot WeightWatchers into a full suite integrally-informed consciousness raising program. Level Up for weight-watchers—Keep what’s been working in terms of lower right systems with counting points, include upper right drugs as necessary (but don’t try to promote them), enhancing the Lower Left cultural support with facilitators helping the groups in person and online look for deeper causes, add 1-1 and group coaching to the clinic offering in lieu of only UR drugs, build custom technology to support groups supporting each other throughout the day on mobile, build out curriculum from the world’s best and most famous therapists and psychologists about what’s underneath weight gain and loss cycles, and acquire / partner with up-and-coming health-ish supplement companies like LMNT, Mudwater, HelloFresh so the WeightWatchers program feels way cooler and you benefit from each other’s marketing.

idk, just thought this might generate some interesting thoughts here.