Weight-Loss Center Giants Ring In The New Year With Revamped Ads, Diet Programs

Commercial weight-loss companies are ramping up their advertising campaigns to promote new dieting programs to recapture former clients and win over new ones. Weight Watchers ($1.4 billion in sales in 2010), Nutrisystem ($527 million) and Jenny Craig ($480 million) rule the $3.2 billion commercial weight-loss center category but are not resting on their laurels. All three are rolling out innovations designed to entice dieters who switched to less expensive do-it-yourself dieting schemes during the recession. Nutrisystem’s new ad agency developed a campaign emphasizing real people rather than celebrities. Weight Watchers is pushing its refurbished calorie-counting system (PointsPlus), while Jenny Craig is touting its new Metabolic Max Program that customizes weight-loss programs to clients' "unique metabolism.”