Forget portion control: Weight loss is a powerful emotional journey of self-reinvention and slow-motion clips of Oprah Winfrey, billionaire media mogul and new Weight Watchers spokesperson, gasping for breath on an elliptical.
Thatâs the message packed into a minute-long video unveiling Winfrey as the face of the diet franchise which, predictably, has moved Twitter users to tears.
âInside every overweight woman is a woman she knows she can be,â Oprah tells viewers, sitting in a wicker chair against a vaguely woodsy backdrop. âMany times you look in the mirror and you donât even recognize your own self because you get lost, buried in the weight that you carry,â she saysâa jumble of mixed metaphors and clichĂ©s that somehow sound like a magical incantation when delivered by Oprah.
She concludes, somewhat unintelligibly, with a reference to her longtime battle with her weight: âNothing youâve ever been through is wasted. So every time I tried and failed, every time I tried again, and every time I tried again, has brought me to this powerful moment to say, âIf not now, when?ââ
The video debuted on Christmas Eve and was tweeted by Oprah on Tuesday morning ahead of the New Yearâa last-minute pitch to sign up for the weight-loss regime. âCome join me,â she wrote. âLetâs do this together.â
Oprah herself invested $43.2 million in the 59-year-old company back in October, around the time she appeared on Ellen DeGeneresâs chat show and said sheâd lost 15 pounds since she started Weight Watchers in August.
But she didnât divulge her recent purchase: a 10 percent stake in the company. (Wall Street followed suit, betting on the âOprah Effectâ and boosting Weight Watchersâ stock, which jumped again following the release of the video.)
Oprah did gush to DeGeneres about Weight Watchersâ revamping its program âto bring a healthier, more holistic approach for everybody.â
Indeed, the Weight Watchers website looks more like Gwyneth Paltrowâs Goop than a traditional diet site, tempting visitors to âunlock your inner awesomeââmore nonsense wordsâby signing up for the new Beyond the Scale program, âour most personalized program ever.â
Weight Watchers has been moving toward the whole foods trend as far back as 2012, when they revealed Jessica Simpson as brand ambassador.
âIâm just Jessica, trying to eat real food in the real world and I really just want to be healthy for my daughter,â she said in her debut commercial with the company.
Meanwhile Jennifer Hudson, a celebrity spokesperson for the company from 2010 to 2014, belted out âbelieve in yourself!â in promotional videos that edged closer to the holistic self-help image Weight Watchers has now fully embraced with Oprah.
That Oprah has invested a chunk of her fortune makes their new partnership look even more convincing. âBecause it worksâ has always been the companyâs slogan, but unlike previous Weight Watchers spokespeople, Oprah hasâvery literallyâput her money where her mouth is.