By Jon Hood
ConsumerAffairs.com
Weight Watchers body-slammed Jenny Craig today, claiming in a lawsuit that its competitor defamed it in a series of recently-aired TV ads.
The ads in question feature former sitcom star Valerie Bertinelli, decked out in a lab coat, touting a major clinical trial, which apparently showed that Jenny Craig clients lost, on average, over twice as much weight as those on the largest weight-loss program.
According to Weight Watchers, that claim is based on two old and unrelated studies, manipulated in an effort to draw a larger client base. The Jenny Craig advertisements are false, Weight Watchers said. Jenny Craig did not conduct a major clinical trial comparing its product with the Weight Watchers program.
Weight Watchers CEO David Kirchhoff, who himself lost 25 pounds on the program, asserted in his own statement that Jenny Craig's claims are clearly unsupported by fact or science.
Bertinelli, who was a fixture on CBS's One Day at a Time until its cancellation in 1984, apparently still holds sway with American dieters. She lost over 40 pounds, going from 172 pounds which, according to People Magazine, qualifies as tipp[ing] the scales to 132 pounds in about nine months.
I'm more active and never felt better! Bertinelli gushes on her official Jenny Craig blog. I made a positive change and you can too!
Grudge match
The two companies already have a catty, if indirect, history with one another.
In September, Weight Watchers sued Jenny Craig's parent company which is, believe it or not, Nestle for copyright infringement. That suit alleged that Breyer Skinny Cow brand ice cream and Stouffer's Lean Cuisine dinners, both manufactured by Nestle, illegally used Weight Watchers's logo without permission. The products also apparently carried labels denoting their respective points, a Weight Watchers formula that takes into account a food item's calories, fat and fiber content.
Weight Watchers really threw its weight around in that suit, demanding both triple and punitive damages, and braying that Jenny Craig was trying to mooch off of its goodwill and high reputation among consumers" in the field of weight control. Jenny, having none of it, shot back that the lawsuit is without merit and [we] will vigorously defend ourselves against these allegations.
Weight Watchers' current suit seeks damages and an injunction preventing further defamatory commercials from airing.
Meanwhile, Jenny Craig -- slowly working its way into the 21st century -- has replaced its '70s sitcom star with one from the '90s. Jason Alexander, who played fall-guy George Costanza on Seinfeld, signed on as a spokesman earlier this month.
How Nestle is able to avoid the conflict of interest inherent in simultaneously marketing chocolate and a weight-loss regimen is a topic probably best left for another day.
