When a global marketing blunder is a local problem

Tim Burrowes

January 21, 2010 4:05

Sometimes I wonder if being a brand with an international affiliation is more trouble than it’s worth.

Jenny Craig – a weight control brand that’s doing very well in Australia, thanks very much – is the latest to face blowback from an international gaffe.

Locally, the adoption of Magda Szubanski as the face of the brand was a big success last year, particularly with the associated PR. The Jen4Men campaign seems to be going well too.

But the row with Weight Watchers – which has seen a Jenny Craig ad forced off the air in the US for making apparently unsubstantiated claims of being more effective than its rival has done it no favours. By the looks of it, local Australian TV news is going to give it a run tonight.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.