Can Fiber Be Fashionable?

Like many a middle-aged person, I've started taking a bit of packaged fiber to, ahem, keep the plumbing going. For some reason, I chose Benefiber over Metamucil. I don't know why.

While looking through the coupons last weekend, I saw one for the brand and tore it out, and then I mentally registered the image that accompanied the coupon:


What's with the 16-inch-waisted teenager in the ad, hey? Who do they think their target market is, and how are they positioning their product?

My daughter told me there's a t.v. ad featuring the same young woman, so I found it on YouTube. Sure enough, there she is, looking all fashionable, accompanied by a European-accented-female voiceover and a bit of techno in the soundtrack.

The fact that my teenaged daughter has seen this ad on a show that she watches means that she and her cohort are being targeted (if the content of the ad itself didn't already make that clear). What's with that?

Here's a bit of insight from an article I found from the 2002 launch of the brand:

Novartis [maker of Benefiber] described the core fiber buyer as female (61 percent), over 50 years of age and not working (retirees or homemakers). "Aside from the [core buyer], Benefiber also appeals to slightly younger consumers [45-plus years old] who are proactive about staying healthy," a Novartis executive noted.

Users may even skew younger than that, especially considering the poor dieting habits being passed on to children. "When you look at how many people are eating five fruits and vegetables per day and whole-grain cereals, it's not that compelling. People are on the run and eating a lot of fast food, not necessarily getting a lot of fiber," remarked Jim LaValle, R.Ph., C.C.N., chief clinical officer at Intramedicine.

But are those younger people aware of their bad eating habits enough to seek out such a product? I doubt it. So what's up with the skinny high-fashion girl?

I can't help thinking there's something going on here about anorexia or bulemia. At least one other blogger thinks so, too. Googling Benefiber and "weight loss" sure turns up a lot of people who seem to think it will help them lose weight somehow.

No final conclusion here, except that when there's such a mismatch between an advertising image and its most obvious target audience, there's probably a subtext that can only be read by an alternate target audience.