The Biggest Web User

GoDaddy.com has announced a new "Go Daddy Girl" to "target fat internet users": Jillian Michaels of the Biggest Loser and you know...whatever it is she does. Here's how the company is positioning it. CEO Bob Parsons, who calls Michaels "smokin' hot," said:

He suspects most of his company's customers are overweight, as are most Americans, who he said make up 82 percent of the world's Internet users.
"They will recognize Jillian and they'll be charged up by her," said Parsons, 59, who said that he and his wife came upon the idea while watching TV. "My days of being a fat guy are numbered."

The thing that strikes me--after imagining how much worse the already pushy/chaotic GoDaddy front page graphics will become--is how disingenuous this sounds. Usually the trade-off with sponsorship seems a little cleaner: you sell your endorsement/spokesperson-ship for--money--but also for your own increased recognition in return. In this instance there is somehow a sense of Doing Good in it that needles.

This is commerce. It is a way for her to sell more of her product, which appears to be your part of the losing/gaining pie. Commerce. But it's flavored a bit as something else, due to some kind of unspoken assumption that we all are already engaged in the Must Lose battle.

"They will recognize Jillian and they'll be charged up by her." The move seems ultimately quite naked about leveraging our nation's obsession with weight. Ameliorate your market position, continue the drama--it never ends, lots of dough.