The flip side of food (eating, indulging) is the weight loss industry, which reaps billions every year. Most of those dollars come from women, who often have a love/hate relationship with food, culturally speaking. While being expected to have a close relationship with chocolate, women are also faced daily with images which tell them not to eat too much of it.
But though there is still a strong base of dieting as a female-dominated activity, it seems that the fact that Americans overall, not just women, are so overweight that losing pounds has become a unisex need. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than two-thirds of the U.S. adult population is overweight and more than one-third is obese.
Jenny Craig will soon be adding a new spokesperson to its roster: Jason Alexander was recently announced as the newest celebrity sign-up. The Seinfeld star has apparently tried other diets in the past that did little to assuage the 30 pounds the actor was looking to shed. Nutrisystem is another weight loss program that's looking to convert beer guts into cash by appealing to a male customer. Its new campaign includes football personalities like sportscaster Chris Berman who are going "all the way" with their weight loss.
Restaurants are also joining in, selling lighter options to men as well as women, and expanding the options beyond simple salads. Applebee's launched its Under 550 Calories menu with one commercial which is decidedly male. It features four men out for dinner, ordering massive cheesy burgers and fries, when one shocks them all by ordering from the lighter side of the menu. He of course is ultimately triumphant when his plate arrives and his friends gaze in shock to see his tasty peppercorn steak with Asiago cheese. One goes so far as to try and steal a potato from his plate. The message is clear: this diet menu is masculine.
Asiago Peppercorn Steak from Applebee's
Subway is also pushing for the business of the health-conscious dude. Penning a deal with NBC Sports, they have been featuring athletes more and more as spokespeople, as well as the old favorite, Jared. And while obviously the audience for sports crosses most boundaries, football is the essence of raw, physical masculinity in American culture, and connecting it to subs with 7 grams of fat or less rather than just Doritos and beer signifies a change in the way men are relating to food, particularly when it comes to the lighter side.
With all of these changes to the way diets are being sold, one has to wonder: which came first? Are more men dieting, forcing companies to vie for the customer, or are these ads convincing men that they need to think about their waistlines?
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