The Perfect Weapon for the Diet Business

One of my favorite headlines recently is, "Weight Watchers International Started at Underweight by Morgan Stanley".

As Americans continue to take in more than we put out, it makes sense to go long on the diet biz, even though Weight Watchers has underperformed the broader market this year. (Ironically, on Yahoo! Finance, when I went to compare the WTW chart to other stocks, Yahoo! suggested Western Union...). A recent article in Investors Business Daily points out that diet products company Medifast has seen its profits get 57 percent fatter over the last five quarters.

Still, we keep getting fatter.

Which leads to the real reason I'm writing this blog, because I'm about to gross you out, and that brings me pleasure.

I have found the perfect marketing tool for the diet industry. It's a blog called This is Why You're Fat, "Where dreams become heart attacks."

Go ahead, take a look at it. Tell me if you ever plan to eat again. I still can't figure out what's in "The Big Fat Ugly", and I don't think I want to know.

But here's a picture of something called "The Meat Baby".

Source: thisiswhyyourefat.com

Meat Baby

The website has even published a book filled with recipesfrom some of the most awful entries, including the burger with Cheez Whiz, stuffed inside a jelly donut.

Reviewing the book, Entertainment Weekly says, "Nothing illustrates our nation's bipolar attitude toward eating more hilariously than this visual coronary."

What's more, the people behind This is Why You're Fat know how to get the word out virally. They're on Twitter, Facebook, and they even posted on YouTube a story by the NBC affiliate in San Jose.

On Twitter alone they have more then 11,000 followers, almost twice the number of people following Weight Watchers. Hello? Of course, maybe this website is NOT good for the diet business...because it works. After all, if no one's overweight, what's Jenny Craig going to do then?

By the way, turns out "The Big Fat Ugly" is a real sandwich made by the Fat Sandwich Company, which says that if you can eat the thing in 15 minutes, you won't have to pay. Believe me, you will pay...

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