News

Weight Watchers admits ‘mistakes’ after sending female journalists night light to improve sex lives

Weight Watchers has admitted it made a mistake with a PR stunt in which it sent female journalists “mood light bulbs” to support a campaign claiming Australian women do not want to have sex with the lights on because of poor body image.

weight-watchers-black

Weight Watchers has created a new campaign centred around sex

The packaging for the globe included an explanation: “This globe is a ‘mood light’ designed to give you a little boost in the bedroom (a PG sex toy, if you will).”

weight-watchers-lightblub-bridie-jabour

Guardian Australia assistant news editor Bridie Jabour was amongst those to receive the package

Weight Watchers’ senior marketing manager, Rebecca Melville, admitted the light bulb might not have made sense without the context of the campaign, leading some people to feel offended.

“As we launched, we launched in stages and that has fuelled the conversation without context,” Melville told Mumbrella.

The full campaign is set to launch tomorrow.

Weight Watchers sent out the globes to promote a new program, Weight Watchers Black, which is aimed at getting customers to see themselves in “a new light”.

The campaign was created by BMF and is being supported with research that suggests 61% of women felt their sex lives were affected by body image issues.

The campaign and promotional material on the Weight Watchers website is heavily weighted toward promoting how losing weight will improve a person’s sex life with tips on how sex will be enhanced by diet, exercise, ways to feel good naked and eight reasons to have more sex.

The campaign focuses on sex, which is a first for the brand, and is supported with a film expressing the impact that body image has on women’s sex lives.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.