Analysis Of Weight Watchers's Super Bowl Commercial

Weight Watchers launched their first ever Super Bowl commercial during the 2015 Super Bowl (CNN Money). The commercial focused on how society perceives food, how companies present their food, and how these things parallel getting hooked on drugs. The 2015 Weight Watchers super bowl commercial uses images, language, and ideas that link drug addictions to food addictions in a frighteningly accurate way. It also addresses many of the problems people with food addictions face and presents them in a way that is easily linked to something people understand more, drug addiction. An addiction to food is not unlike an addiction to drugs. According to Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a food addiction is when someone is not only eating a lot of food but chronically

It is especially hard because of the amount of advertising companies do. In the background of the commercial the song “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg is playing. This song starts out slow and quiet but by the end of the commercial it is fast and loud. As the song crescendos there are more images being shown faster and faster. This creates a chaotic and overwhelming feeling. The viewer then realizes how hard it must be for a food addict to resist their compulsions and to endure such bombardment on a daily basis. Many of these advertisements, especially for sugary foods, are targeting children which would start the addiction to sugar early in life (FARE). The commercial also points out the sheer volume of food that is available. In the commercial it shows people buying massive amounts of food in bulk and the narrator says, “Guess what, if you buy more I’ll cut you a deal” (Weight Watchers). This refers to the copious amounts of food that can be bought for a very cheap price. This kind of excess at a low cost can supply a wider range of people with the ability to become addicted to food. It also enables those who are already food addicts to continue and amplify their addiction. Their addiction would amplify because people can actually build up a tolerance to the dopamine being released by the brain which causes them to eat more in order to reach the same amount of satisfaction (How Food Addiction