Weight Loss Surgery Adverts

It’s genius when you think about it. Everyone wants to look good so why not use that as a marketing technique to promote bariatric surgery? The postcard used in the ad has the faded denim look, subconsciously reminding someone desperately trying to lose weight about the dream-jeans they want to fit into. TriStar Health Systems and Baptist Hospital is “aggressively marketing the weight-loss surgery” in this way. Over 60 percent of America’s female adult population is overweight; for this proportion, surgery may be the answer.

US Admin Pushes Surgery

Even official bodies are now – at least indirectly – pushing this surgery. The US Food and Drug Administration has reduced the acceptable weight for the “most popular and least invasive procedure.” Hospitals however, are looking for patients who want to pay since insurance companies have still not “embraced this lower threshold.”

Pretty Marketing Techniques

It’s been done a million times, but it keeps reaping success; pushing pretty people in marketing techniques. This is exactly what is working for the weight-loss surgery too (not surprisingly). But on the flip side, the reality could be different since there are potential complications and risks from undergoing such surgery (as with any surgery) and it is not “an automatic cure for obesity.” The marketers are claiming something different though, saying that they are just pushing this as “an awareness piece,” since many individuals just don’t know about the bariatric surgery and various other available options. So while it is a great marketing technique since such a substantial proportion of the American population is overweight and even officially obese, looking at pictures of pretty, thin people should not be the determining factor in deciding whether this surgery is right for you. Each individual case needs to be assessed on its own merits.