Is Bariatric Marketing Out of Control?

brandon72 · August 23, 2008

To keep my Bariatric Learning Center website up to date, I am constantly doing research online to learn about new techniques, surgery risks, stats and the like.

Here's something I've noticed over the last year or so. Does anyone else think that the marketing techniques of bariatric surgeons and surgery centers have gotten out of hand? I don't mean all of them, of course. But many of the websites I see on a daily basis are just plain ridiculous.

Remember the days when there was virtually no medical marketing of any kind? Maybe I'm just getting old or something, but I find it all disturbing. I even published a new blog article today on this very subject:

Do Bariatric Surgeons Think You’re Stupid?

I guess I'm just wondering if I'm alone in my cynical perceptions. Your thoughts and comments are welcomed!

-Brandon

tomatogirl · August 23, 2008

You know, you are 100% right. When I started researching this, I ran across ad after ad that showed some lovely model frolicking somewhere with nary a scar or stretchmark over her entire 110 lb body. They all made me roll my eyes. It took a lot to dig through the crap ads to get to the information I needed.

I also got a lot of media about lap banding and one thing I really appreciated was Realize obviously had people who either had lost a lot of weight (one girl playing tenis in the brochure obviously has saggy skin) or larger people (of course, as I say this, there is a man in a swimsuit in the brochure that they forgot to photoshop his bellybutton back on, LOL). That was nice to see. I knew the model was fake and I was never going to look like her.