Postive dieting campain 'The Special K Chalange'

Before you read on, do make yourself comfortable and perhaps have a nice cup of tae (tea in Irish just in case you are wondering) ready.

When the powerful campaign first hit out TV's, I felt it was about time that a large company like Special K focused on positive body image and instead of going I will be thin "I will gain confidence" from my weight loss. As I dug a little deeper I found out that this whole positive dieting campaign had a mask that covered a dark secret that not many of us would uncover.

When the ads first hit the TV I was so happy, a large company that is geared towards women that want to lose weight is giving dieting a positive spin. I thought YES! ‘Finally dieting is not about the amount of weight you lose, but what you gain from it.' The women in the TV commercial where so apprehensive at first that there positivity after the experience was/is very powerful. That is the mask right there! This is a very strategic campaign, it was launched just before the schools went on holidays and just before the height for the overseas summer season. I also discovered that this campaign is a repeat...it was done in January 2011 also statically placed. Not directly after the new year but long enough for other new year’s resolutions to fall true.

Then as I started to write this post I thought about how the campaign actually works. They are saying that for you to feel 'gorgeous' 'confident' etc. you need do the special K challenge.  In other words for you to have self-worth you need to lose weight. This impels that women are not confident if they are over 10 stone and that they need to lose weight to be confident. So this message could and properly has gone out to younger girls who, at the awkward nature of their age will consume this message and do anything and everything in their power to feel whatever it is they want to feel. What will these young girls gain form this? More than likely an eating disorder of some shape or forum. Now that’s a whole other ball game.

Screen shots of the stages on the Irish sights to follow

I even looked into the diet plan itself and was surprised, I couldn’t find it on the Irish sight after going through the extensive questions they had asked, I was also stunned that the sight refused you to go no further if you chose a unhealthy weight, moreso I found no talk about the dieting world’s most favorite topic, calories. There is no mention of the two week challenge. If you are under 18 years you cannot singe up. The plot thickens! I then went and looked at another Special K sight, this one happened to be American and what I found was very different to the Irish sight.

The Intensive Questionnaire

The diet plan (notice what is beside 'FRIDAY')

It was a short questioner about what Special K products you eat and an option of filling out what types of food you have bought in the past 30 days. You also have the option of starting you’re  two week challenge when it suites you. That’s all you have to choose from, there are no other options. Don't worry you can still get all the calorie info you need while you stock your shelves up with Special K products.

  1. The Questionnaire 2.Diet Plan (Two Week Challenge)

This must mean that the EU or someone had some say that made Special K change how their dieting element works on these fine shores. It’s the same on the UK sight as well so my gut is telling me it’s an EU matter but I could be wrong on this.

 It wasn’t always like this, it was set up like the American system, where you dieted for two weeks, ate two bowels of Special k (don’t worry you bought all the variations of it, just so you would not get bored) so low call, low fat, low everything for dinner and that was about 1000 calories. Yes you did lose weight, of course you would, you are eating half of what you are meant to eat over the course of two weeks. The weight just falls off, after your two weeks of pure torture you then decided to treat yourself and slowly but surely the weight plies on and then you are back in square one with a few extra pounds.

What we have to take into account is that ads only affects us when we are interested in the product or need it. What makes us interested in this? The media, the way they highlight celebrity’s weight, the fashion industry with its so thin we could cry models that have been photo shopped to death. Yes it has gotten better but there is a lot more work to be done.

For futher reading on this top please click here and here