The NBC reality program “The Biggest Loser” has the potential to create a lot of winners. Aside from the obvious winners of the weight-loss competition, there are other opportunities for people to “win.” For instance, all of the contestants have a chance to leave the show as victors if they use the opportunity provided to lose weight and become healthier. Viewers have the same opportunity to win if they decide to change their lives because of the show. Without being overt, the show has a strong underlying message about weight loss and self-worth, but in a recent episode the underlying message about weight loss was overshadowed by a preachy and overbearing “green” campaign by NBC.
“The Biggest Loser” has a typical reality show premise. A large group of contestants starts out at the beginning and as the weeks go by contestants are eliminated until the end of the season. Unlike other reality shows, though, this show has an important message to send out to viewers about living healthy, taking care of your body and maintaining your self-esteem.
On last week’s episode though, the show’s message was overwhelmed by a push from the NBC network about staying green. During the ninety-minute episode that aired last Tuesday, there were numerous public service announcements about taking care of the environment. Those announcements tackled such issues as fixing leaky faucets, using less plastic and buying local produce.
Additionally, there was nod to the green movement during the episode itself. The Entertainment Weekly recap of the episode noted the following about an exchange between Bob, one of the trainers on the show, and one of the contestants:
Bob blessed Allen with some product placement: a stupid Ziploc bag that’s “made from 50 percent wind power.” Allen: “That’s good for the environment!”
Allen’s statement may be true and working to preserve the environment is a worthy cause. However, numerous public service announcements about NBC going green and a mention of a environmentally-friendly product so blatantly in one episode is a bit much.
“The Biggest Loser” may have a lot of great qualities and it may inspire a lot of people to lose weight and change their lives. That is a solid message for a program to be promoting. However, the excessive marketing for a green campaign during the episode overshadowed the episode itself.
NBC may want to heavily promote going green but an overzealous bid to promote a green lifestyle could turn viewers off quickly and make NBC prime-time the biggest loser after all.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.