Sunday, April 12, 2009

NutriSystem ads

For some time now, I have watched the parade of "sports fan" favorites selling me NutriSystem on my TV. Everyone from Mike Golic to, well, Dan Marino has dropped by to extol the virtues of a pot roast-based diet plan that arrives in the mail.

A while ago, they introduced a curveball (sports metaphor) into the rotation. A voluptuous "sports babe" named Jillian started to grace my NutriSystem ads. With her gravelly voice and plastic-looking face, she was sure to appeal to the "sports fan" demo.


Then I realized something tricky that NutriSystem was doing. Depending on the sports celebrity, they would change the URL on the bottom of the screen to a) relate to the diet pitcher, and b) track which ads were working. It wasn't as blatant as www.crazyfox2943.com, but it became noticeable. For instance, Jillian Sports's URl was nutrisystem.com/pretty, perhaps a dog whistle to "sports fans" or possibly an ironic statement about the actress's looks.
Keeping this in mind, I ran a little test. When you go to nutrisystem.com, do different URLs take you to different places? Easy enough to test. I went to nutrisystem.com. Got a picture of Jillian in a bikini.


I went to nutrisystem.com/pretty. Same picture of Jillian in a bikini.

Hmmm. So they want me to believe that she is pretty. Let's try a test.

nutrisystem.com/ugly. Same picture of her.

nutrisystem.com/ILoveHitler. Same picture of her. It's very clearly implied by the NutriSystem ad that Jillian Sports loves Hitler.

"But," you may say, "maybe she's the type who loves everybody." That is obviously false, but here's one more test.

nutrisystem.com/IHateAmerica. Yup. This link goes directly to Jillian, who we have just proven HATES AMERICA.

Way to go, NutriSystem. You've hired a spokesbabe who loves Hitler and hates America.

6 comments:

PETER said...

I liked the story about the old Russian lady better.

peter said...

BLOG OWNER APPROVAL? WHAT THE HELL? CAPTCHA NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YA, HUH?

robert said...

TV stations need to wake. Commercials like these, the f*in video professor, douche bag scottrade guy in his chopper, that hearing aid ad with the "bingo" hag, tax masters, jk harris, exxon, etc. are turning more and more people away from the tube, or at least heading for their remotes. ads used to be somewhat entertaining...what happened?

matt c said...

can't believe that jillian loves hitler. NOT voting for her any more.

Anonymous said...

i wish hey would stop the ad that has her catching a football and asking: how many girls can do that? does she honestly think shes the only girl that has caught a football?? i think that is a slap in the face to the thousands of girls that PLAY football and not catch one tossed to her by a little kid which it looks like in the ad. so please stop running that ad

Unknown said...

I wish they would stop the ad that says if you're over 50 and still fat you might as well give up. It only insults every woman who is obese and happens to have a decent life.