Fluffy Friday: Tough question for a “tough” trainer.
So this is not really fluffy and probably no longer Friday for you but in CA it’s still Friday and I love alliteration so fluffy it is.
According to US weekly, America’s most reliable news source, that “America’s Toughest Trainer” Jillian Michaels is being hit with a third lawsuit this month. A woman in CA is claiming that her dietary supplement is made with potentially dangerous or lethal chemicals. Earlier lawsuits alleged the product made false promises and customers were duped into buying a worthless product. Really? They don’t work? I’m shocked!
On one hand….
Regardless, if Jillian is a good trainer or not, she unarguably has influence over millions of people. Which is where the question arises. Should Jillian, as a role model to millions, to put her face (and abs) on a bottle of “magic” pills? I get it the truth, hard work & discipline, can’t easily be bottled and sold for $29.99 but as a health and fitness celebrity that people trust is her choice the responsible one?
On the other hand..
Speaking of responsibility, we have our unhappy consumers angry that the magic pills aren’t as magic as they were led to believe. Maybe I should sue Victoria Secret because those panties sure don’t make me the seductive temptress I was led to believe I would be? I realize there’s a big gap between panties and weight loss pills. Most dietary supplements carry some amount of risk whereas panties are relatively risk free. I couldn’t find out any information if the third woman was actually harmed by the pills. Although, I can attest that my ego has been harmed many times walking into Victoria’s Secret.
Was Jillian being irresponsible? There are hundreds of weight loss supplements on the market. Is she being targeted because she’s a celebrity? What about the personal responsibly of the consumers?
xoxo
j
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I had to laugh when I saw this ad included when reading this in the RSS feed:
http://freepressblog.org/files/2010/02/jillianad.png
Ack!!! That’s pretty funny! At least it wasn’t for her supplement.
Do you know if there is a way to control ads? I don’t mind necessarily mind her as I feel like, in general, she has done more good than bad for people. (Although her kettlebell swing one national tv was horrendous. Still I don’t want this blog to be about picking people apart…that’s another issue.) Anyway I’m not sure I want her supplement ads showing up? What can I do?
I really do like Jillian as a trainer but I was a little bummed when I saw the pills advertised. She is not as much of an all natural “do it the right way” trainer as I had thought. I don’t watch TBL near as much now that they have so many product promos either. I agree though, we do need to be informed consumers but to be informed consumers we must be provided the pertinent information!
Here’s where I see the mixed message. TBL you see people struggle to lose the weight… they are sitting around popping pills they are working out and eating right. Sure, some supplements are probably thrown into the mix, but seriously if it were only a pill we would all look like Jillian, duh? So why does she endorse a magic pill, IDK? Money is the main reason, she has become a brand, her face sells books, exercise equipment and and pills. Are the pills dangerous to take (besides not giving you magic results)? That should be looked at, but then so should every other weight loss pill out there, because really aren’t they basically the same thing?
No easy answers just like there’s NO magic pill for Jillian’s ripped body!
I’ve always enjoyed Jillian and her “stick it to ya straight” attitude but have to admit I lost some of my enthusiasm for her when I started seeing all of her “magic pill” ads pop-up … now I kinda view her as a sell-out … corporate America *sigh*
Hey Jenn, sorry I missed your comment earlier – I would have replied sooner if I had seen it, although I’m not quite sure how to prevent those ads from showing up. Luckily we still have that old-fashioned system of in-person conversations as a back-up for cases like that.
I don’t really have much experience with the different ad systems, but at least some of the ones I’ve seen do try to offer you a way to opt out of particular ads for various reasons (if you find them “offensive”, etc.). I’m not sure if the system you’re using (is it Google AdSense?) offers a level of granularity that would allow you to specify no Jillian ads, but it’s worth a shot.
I think the problem is that most ad systems (the good ones anyway) try to present “relevant” ads by scanning the content of the page and giving an ad that seems to fit the subject matter. Obviously this time they may have looked a little too closely at the name without considering the context, but I would imagine that you’d run into a more general version of this problem a lot with the type of content that you post. You offer lots of good health and fitness advice, but I would bet that (unfortunately) most companies looking to advertise products that fit in the “health and fitness” markets are probably offering things that are about as worthwhile as the magic pills mentioned above.
It seems like it would be a tough problem for the auto-matching ad systems to crack. On the other hand, you could also look into going direct with your ad sales to specific companies you trust and actually want to promote. It may be difficult and time consuming to land those deals, but a few of those (or even just one) will probably pay more money than the larger number of random ad network ones do combined.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments. I really enjoyed reading your opinions. As you could tell from my post I have mixed feelings. I guess at the end of the day, I see Jillian as a girl hero regardless of the pills, as she has done more good than bad. I’m not a fan of weight loss supplements but I’m not of fan of suing people out of ignorance either.
Thanks Jared. I really don’t know what ads we are using. I don’t get enough traffic for it to really matter.
However, I would like the ads to be in line with my beliefs regardless.
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