Medifast's New TV Commercials More Like 'Real Housewives of Maryland'

You can almost always tell when an advertising agency fails to grasp the unique selling proposition of a product when it relies on cliche vignettes, like a woman showing off her new figure wearing a series of tight fitting tennis outfits or a mom swinging with her kids at the park.

The new Medifast TV commercial tag line for 2015 is "Lose weight with Medifast and your whole world gets better," but it should be "We had no idea how to hawk this weight loss program so we lifted some scenes from Bravo."

The problem is, almost any weight loss program will help you lose weight. So what's special about Medifast, and why should someone choose the Medifast 5&1 Plan -- along with its free Take Shape for Life health coach program -- over competing diet programs?




I personally lost 35 pounds in less than four months using Medifast and Take Shape for Life and have maintained my optimal weight for almost a year now. But if I were currently choosing a weigh loss diet, I would never try Medifast based on the Ruth Ann Somervell tennis commercial.

Somervell is one of Medifast's "Happy Afters" winners from 2014 who actually has a very interesting story to tell. In fact, she told it to former Medifast social media person Hallie Falquet Sovesky in this You Tube video. I could totally relate to her predicament even though it was different than mine.

Like many women, Somervell had gained more than 60 pounds after having children and had begun to despair she would ever be at a healthy weight again. She began telling herself, "This is how old I am. This is where I am at in life. This is how large I will be," she recalls in the video.

The turning point for Somervell was receiving some cash from her mother for Christmas. With visions of brownies and birthday cakes likely dancing through her head, she told her husband she was going to buy a new mixer for the kitchen counter. He tactfully suggested she invest in herself instead.

In the Happy Afters video, Somervell explained some of reasons she chose Medifast, including its compatibility with her busy life style, her ability to eat "normal" dinners with her family (minus the rice or bread), and the fact she could eat six times a day.



Somervell's final words, "Sixty five pounds later, I'm so glad I never bought that mixer," is far more real and specific than "Your whole world gets better."

To separate Medifast from such competitors in the corporate diet space as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, Medifast's marketing team and new ad agency GKV should have stuck closer to the real life stories of the Happy Afters winners starring in the new TV commercials instead of relying on dusty Hollywood cliches.

I love that Medifast is using real people in its new TV commercials. Unfortunately, the commercials look too much like "Real Housewives of Maryland" and do not authentically reveal what is special and different about Medifast compared to other diet programs.

You can purchase Medifast replacement meals directly from Medifast Centers, the Medifast website or -- for no extra cost -- through the co-branded website of a Medifast TSFL health coach. Medifast does not recommend purchasing its products from third party vendors, but if you choose to do so, you can find them on both Amazon and eBay.

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More from Diet Skeptic:

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Medifast Centers Vs. Take Shape for Life

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