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Post by 76trojan on Aug 11, 2018 17:45:46 GMT
I know that Oprah sold some of her Weight Watchers shares a few months ago, but I noticed that she doesn’t seems as involved recently. She used to do those Thursday motivational videos and was an active participant. What happened?
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Post by DebDoesWW on Aug 11, 2018 18:36:53 GMT
Good question 76trojan I just looked and her last Connect post was 96 weeks ago. Weird. |
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Post by fullmahina on Aug 11, 2018 18:55:28 GMT
I know she sold a sizable portion of her share in WW earlier this year but that's all I've heard.
Maybe she'll be backing away from WW? I really do like Oprah but her TV ads for WW were kinda ridiculous. From the "wow BREAD!!!" ads to the all-you-can-eat taco fest ads they were silly and misleading, IMHO.
I'm not sure what effect her messaging is having, though, when it is clear that she's not really having all that much success in losing weight. Now if WW aims for the "healthy, happy" aspect of the program instead of having its main focus on weight loss (Beyond the Scale, lol) then I think Oprah could still be of value to the brand. But as an example of WW weight loss success, not so much. If anything, she represents the ongoing struggle that so many of us have had for our entire lives.
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Post by zazzles on Aug 11, 2018 22:09:05 GMT
I just said some of this in another thread, so I'll summarize my beliefs...
WW (Mindy) has settled on a focus of people 35 years old and younger who are mobile-device addicted.
WW has as one primary goal finding ways to keep members attached at the credit card that doesn't depend on happiness/frustration with the scale. They want people to perceive that they get value for their monthly fee without regard to what the scale does so that they don't join-and-quit, join-and-quit. WW wants a consistent cash flow from member fees, not one that goes up and down significantly depending on the season.
Oprah has a great many followers and fans, but I perceive that they are mostly far older than the new WW target age demographic. WW will keep he around and involved because, unlike previous celebrity spokespeople, Oprah made a huge cash investment.
Finally, Oprah did pull a chunk of cash out of WW stock. That was just a solid business decision. She put in X dollars and took out X dollars of profit. She still has a huge cash position in WW, but she has reclaimed her original investment. If WW tanked today and O. lost everything, she'd still be no worse off than she was before she invested.
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Post by itsrad on Aug 11, 2018 22:58:55 GMT
I'll be honest - the whole Oprah thing had me rolling my eyes from the beginning.
I respect how open and honest and public she has been with her weight loss struggles. But she has gone around the barn so many times that the whole "this is IT" thing was just ridiculous.
I remember the coming out on stage with the big pants when she lost a ton of weight in the '80s.
Then there was the Bob Greene thing. And the Dr. Oz thing. And the personal chefs. And the roman bread orgy. Round and round and round.
I'm sure in a couple of years it will be something else - that will make her more scads of money. I'm not sure why she is everyone's "weight loss guru" - she should be our "make scads of money guru."
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Post by linda72 on Aug 12, 2018 12:37:31 GMT
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Kitty
Transcendent Member
Posts: 1,448
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Post by Kitty on Aug 13, 2018 1:26:22 GMT
I don't think Oprah ever personally posted much on Connect. She did do weekly videos. I just went and looked at that page and the last one was 12/28/2017. I wonder if they quit the videos because WW didn't really want them. Or, it may have been that she was contractually obligated to do them for X amount of time and then the contract requirement was over and so she just isn't doing them any more.
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Post by zazzles on Aug 13, 2018 2:45:35 GMT
I wonder if they quit the videos because WW didn't really want them. Or, it may have been that she was contractually obligated to do them for X amount of time and then the contract requirement was over and so she just isn't doing them any more. I'm going to coin a new word: fizzleware - noun. Any concept, innovation or program introduced by Weight Watchers and touted to be the latest, greatest and wave of the future. Generally has a life not exceeding 12 months. Often associated with the audio sound pffft. |
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Post by hpeterson1951 on Aug 14, 2018 23:19:49 GMT
fizzleware - noun. Any concept, innovation or program introduced by Weight Watchers and touted to be the latest, greatest and wave of the future. Generally has a life not exceeding 12 months. Often associated with the audio sound pffft. This actually had me laughing out loud. I had to explain to my DH why I was laughing at the computer screen. I did notice that Oprah was not on the last two magazine covers. I kind of agree with itsrad on everything. Oprah seems to go on fads- her belief in Dr. Oz kind of did it in for me. |
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