Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York

Are You Still Holding on To Jenny Craig?

Is anyone buying it? Organic Liaison that is. We loved Kirstie Alley during the Jenny Craig campaign. It was funny, down to earth and very promising. Yes, I did become a member of Jenny Craig, I bought their food and dropped about 30lbs. It was and still is a great program for busy people who don’t have time to cook or know portion control. I couldn’t figure out for the longest time why she stopped doing Jenny Craig, and then a friend mentioned she was doing R&D on her own diet line. For the next two years we patiently waited for it to launch. Organic Liaison appeals to those consumers that have “been there, done that.” They don’t want prepackaged food. I have not tried the program - yet. I am however curious to see how its sales and brand development will sustain in this economy. Will it remain online only or go onto a QVC or into GNC?

Here is what our lifestyle PR team deemed as the good about the communication efforts made by Kirstie’s program so far:

• Great tie in with the upcoming reality show
• Excellent pre-buzz on TV w/ Oprah & The Today Show
• Outstanding social media efforts
• Cute packaging!
• The added claim of being the first USDA Organic Certified diet is also press worthy
• Good advisory board of health practitioners but why are they all also members of Scientology? Ref: Thomas Lovejoy, Bob Durst, Deborah A. Klein, Soram Khalsa, and Michelle Seward. Could they not appoint some non- L. Ron Hubbard fans to balance things out so it does not look so slanted? I am all for supporting your church regardless of your beliefs, but seriously, come on, enough already.

Here are some of the things that we draw concern to about the Organic Liaison program from a PR standpoint:

• The pseudoscience, can it hold up?
• The price is a little steep for this customer; the “Rescue Me Kit” is priced separately at $139. We think it should be $39.00
• The term “organic” puts the customer inline to believe that they have to only buy organic, which in 2008 was OK, but in 2009 we saw this trend drop as the economy did also. Organic is not by any means on its way out, but other trends have taken its place in this space; local farming, co-op produce, local harvest, etc. 
• A&E, the network that will air Kirstie Alley’s Big Life struggles with its own identity, is it highbrow or not, arts and entertainment or real life drama. Big Life sounds a bit like Fat Actress which was quite funny, but according to Showtime it tanked with only seven episodes.
• Lastly, and this is a big PR no-no… the models and stock images on the website are all of white people. Where are the multicultural folks, blacks, Latin’s, Asians – whoever manages the site needs to fix this! 

Final Thoughts: There is no doubt Kirstie has been working very hard the last few years to launch this project, we wish her the best and look forward to seeing a healthy slim and happy new Ms. Alley. Ps – we know what the word “liaison” means since we are a $139.00 consumer but your $39.00 may not Kirstie! ;-)