Telling Dieters a Pill Works Only if They Work, Too

By STUART ELLIOTT
FOR decades, the beauty industry was described as — or accused of — selling “hope in a jar.” Now, a marketing blitz with a budget estimated at more than $150 million in the first year will try to persuade dieters to seek hope in a pill bottle despite widespread skepticism about the grandiose promises of diet pills, plans and potions.
The campaign, being introduced in stages by seven agencies, promotes a product from GlaxoSmithKline called Alli — pronounced, not coincidentally, like “ally,” as in a helper or associate.
Alli is the first weight-loss drug to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for sale in the United States over the counter, no prescription necessary. It works by preventing the body from absorbing some of the fat one eats.
The campaign is centered on an elaborate Web site, myalli.com. There are also television commercials, direct mailings, print advertising, books, online ads, displays in stores and information being provided to health care professionals.
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Alli is a version of Xenical, a prescription weight-loss drug sold by Roche. GlaxoSmithKline acquired the American rights to Xenical in 2005 and has spent much of the time since then figuring out how to master a tricky balancing act.
On one hand, Alli ads need to persuade dieters the drug can work well for them. On the other, the ads also must make sure the target audience — primarily men and women ages 35 to 50 — does not dismiss Alli out of hand as another unworkable get-thin-quick diet scheme.
The challenge confronting GlaxoSmithKline is epitomized in a cartoon by David Sipress in the May 7 issue of The New Yorker magazine. The cartoon shows a woman watching a TV commercial as an announcer declares, “Ask your doctor if taking a pill to solve all your problems is right for you.”
“Our vision is to change the way people think about weight loss,” said Steven L. Burton, vice president for weight control at the GlaxoSmithKline consumer health care division in Pittsburgh.
“People are really fed up because they are bombarded with hyped products, fad diets, that overpromise and underdeliver,” Mr. Burton said. “Alli breaks through the clutter with straight talk, an honest voice, saying that losing weight is hard work.”
The campaign appeals to potential Alli customers to educate themselves on using the product and improving their dieting techniques as well as their eating habits.
The dedication page of a 152-page book, “Are You Losing It?”, published by GlaxoSmithKline, refers to “the most important element of successful weight loss: you.” (A second book, “The Alli Diet Plan,” includes recipes.)
The myalli.com Web site also takes a just-the-facts tone. “You don’t just try Alli — you commit to it,” one Web page declares ... or is it warns? The theme of the campaign promises, “If you have the will, we have the power.”
The emphasis on education meets with approval from a diet doctor.
“They’re trying to say, ‘We want to be forthright,’ and I think that’s reasonable,” said Dr. Arthur Frank, medical director at the weight management program at George Washington University in Washington, compared with “the advertising and marketing for most weight-loss products, which tends to be inflammatory.”
“People have been burned so many times” in trying those products, Dr. Frank said, “but there’s this eternal hopefulness they might make some progress” and Alli can appeal to that.
“This is a legitimate drug, tested, evaluated, not some hokey stuff someone is promoting through some overseas Web site,” Dr. Frank said.
Still, it is “not a drug you can be passive about,” he added, because “it does obligate you, the consumer, to take an active part in the process.”
“If you do, it can work and you can see some tangible results,” Dr. Frank said. “But you have to be thoughtful about it; you can’t take this, then go to a ballgame and have a couple of hot dogs and French fries.”
The reason for the caution is that a dieter who eats too much fat while taking Alli may experience what the ads delicately refer to as “treatment effects,” which can include “loose or more frequent stools, an urgent need to go to the bathroom or gas with an oily discharge.”
Although GlaxoSmithKline is required to disclose the side effects only on Alli packages and not in the ads, Mr. Burton said, “We go out of our way to make sure people understand how to use the product with a reduced-calorie, low-fat diet.”
“To be successful, we have to sell a program, an attitude,” he said, “and part of that is making sure people have all the information they need.”
In working on GlaxoSmithKline products intended to help stop smoking, like Nicorette and Commit, Mr. Burton said, “what we’ve learned is to present a brand that’s a partner, but not a total solution.”
“We’re here to help, but we’re not the answer,” he added. “The answer is your commitment.”
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The commercials and print ads are being created by the New York office of Arnold Worldwide, part of the Arnold Worldwide Partners unit of Havas, which has worked on campaigns for the GlaxoSmithKline drugs meant to help smokers quit cigarettes.
Alli’s marketing is like ads for those drugs in that the purpose is “to give people a chance to succeed by making sure they’re prepared to make changes” in their behavior and habits, said Kate Murphy, senior vice president and creative director at Arnold New York.
The campaign is aimed at “a jaded consumer,” Ms. Murphy said, who “will say to you, ‘I’ve heard it all, I’ve done it all: Weight Watchers, TrimSpa, the cabbage-soup diet.’ And even though they don’t believe the claims, they will try it anyway.”
“We felt we had to separate out people who wanted quick fixes from those who understand they had some work to do” to lose weight sensibly and safely, Ms. Murphy said, “and if the choice is Alli, to give them everything they need to succeed.”
The other agencies working on the campaign are Casanova Pendrill, owned by the Publicis Groupe, for the ads aimed at Hispanic consumers; Draft FCB, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, for the direct marketing; Footsteps, for the ads aimed at black consumers; HealthStar Public Relations, part of HealthStar Communications; Imc2, for the online and interactive elements; and MPG, part of Havas, for the media services.