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Running head: SEDUCTIVELY MISLEADING
Eat Cake and Lose Weight: Bipolar Food Messaging in Woman’s World and Other
Popular Women’s Magazines
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Abstract
In this article, we define the concept of ‘bipolar food messaging,’ the
simultaneous occurrence of indulge/restrict eating messages found in mass media. In that
context, we discuss the results of a thematic content analysis of the covers of top selling
Woman’s World magazine, which as we hypothesized almost always features “magic
bullet” or “quick fix” weight loss solutions alongside images of cakes. A second study, of
other popular women’s magazines, showed five out of seven publications (Family Circle,
First for Women, Good Housekeeping, Woman’s World, and Woman’s Day) featured diet
messaging and dessert content while two (Ladies’ Home Journal and Redbook) did not.
Results are discussed in terms of theories about body image and indulgent and restrictive
eating.
Keywords: bipolar food messaging, popular women’s magazines, indulgent eating,
restrictive eating, food images
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Eat Cake and Lose Weight: Bipolar Food Messaging in Woman’s World and Other
Popular Women’s Magazines
“You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” The words of this proverb capture a
salient truth about the human condition. You cannot habitually indulge in high calorie
foods like cake and still lose weight. Yet in the some popular media outlets, as if defying
the law of thermodynamics, pairing high calorie foods with diet advice, weight loss
products, and thin models is ubiquitous. We suggest a name for this pattern: bipolar food
messaging.
Examples of this phenomenon abound. Paris Hilton wearing a provocative
swimsuit seductively soaps up a Bentley while eating an enormous Carl’s Junior
cheeseburger. At the supermarket checkout, the “indulge/restrict” message displayed on
the covers of popular women’s interest magazines is a constant presence. Inside these
publications ads for Hydroxycut, Medifast, and Sweet ‘N Low compete with ads for M &
M’s and Bagel Bites. On television, viewers of The Biggest Loser are tempted by
commercials for cinnamon buns, while fans of pro-overeating programming such as Man
Verses Food view ads for Slim-Fast, The South Beach Diet, and Jenny Craig. Online
glossy food websites like bonappetite.com feature banners for low cal, high fiber fruit
thins. And Comcast serves up sidebars featuring Dominos pizza, bikini clad models
selling beach vacations, and Jennifer Hudson hawking Weight Watchers, which is owned
by Heinz.
Consumers are bombarded with idealized, impossible to achieve images of the
body (i.e. the thin ideal for women and the muscular ideal for men) that frequently
contribute to poor body image which is a cause of disordered eating, while every other
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advertisement entices them to consume fast, cheap food. In the United States food
manufacturers spend $11.26 billion annually on advertising (Consumers Union, 2005),
while consumers spend an estimated $40 to $100 billion on weight loss products and
services, which is more than the combined national budget for health, education, and
welfare (Cummings, 2003). As nutritionist Marion Nestle (2002) explains “the
fundamental paradox facing the food industry is the need to sell more food to a
population that needs to eat less.
To boost sales industry cultivates a simultaneous demand for diet products and
junk food creating an unhealthy obsession with food and a situation where Americans are
becoming increasingly fat within what sociologist Sharlene Hesse-Biber refers to as “the
culture of thinness” (Hesse-Biber, 2007). Two-thirds of adults in the United States are
overweight or obese (Ogden, Carrol, McDowell, & Flegal, 2007), while .9 percent of
women and .3 percent of men report having had anorexia, and 1.5 percent of women and
.5 percent of men say they have had bulimia. Binge eating disorder, a condition
characterized by frequent uncontrolled overeating without purging, afflicts 3.5 percent of
women and 2 percent of men at some point in their lives (Hudson et al., 2007).
The bipolar food messaging contributes to yo-yo dieting or weight cycling, a
termed coined by Kelly Brownell (1986) to describe the frequent weight fluctuations
commonly experienced by chronic dieters. While initially the popular fad diets promoted
in the media can trigger weight loss, the low calorie, unsustainable regimes also cause
hunger, depression, fatigue and stress all of which lead to a lapse in dietary restraint
followed by disinhibition or what Herman and Polivy (1989) call the “What the Hell
effect.”
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Woman’s World
Our interest in bipolar food messaging started when we noticed the covers of the
popular women’s magazine Woman’s World always seemed to feature luscious images of
cakes alongside “quick fix” weight loss headlines. For example, one cover (September
28, 2009) sandwiches a picture of a large cheesecake accompanied by the headline
“Cheesecake bliss! One simple recipe, four irresistible ways!” between the weight loss
claims: “Lose 7 to 21 pounds the first week!” and “24 hours to a brand-new metabolism!
Burn 500 calories a day — starting today!”
In the current investigation, we systematically analyze the health and nutritionrelated cover messaging in Woman’s World magazine. Our main interest was in
documenting the frequency and nature of the conflicting message: “eat, don’t eat” or
“indulge, restrict” in light of its potential influence on consumers, particularly women
who are subjected to strong sociocultural pressures to resemble the media’s thin beauty
ideal. We wanted to better understand how the messages in Woman’s World and similar
popular publications including Family Circle, First for Women, Good Housekeeping,
Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, and Women’s Day shape women’s attitudes and
behaviors around weight loss, eating, nutrition, and health.
Our analysis is, to our knowledge, the only one of its kind in that it uses expert
analysis by a social psychologist and a dietician to study the social and health messaging
of a popular woman’s magazine in a specific array of details. These details include the
nature of the weight loss messaging (specifically, what we call the “magic bullet”
approach), the juxtaposition with dessert imagery, and a theoretical explanation of the
psychology of this indulge/restrict formula, and the implications for women’s health.
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The Social Psychology Perspective
Several social psychological theories — social comparison theory, objectification
theory, cultivation theory, uses and gratifications theory, and agenda setting theory —
elucidate the impact that bipolar food messaging has on individuals and society. These
theories can help clarifying how psychological mechanisms interface with the broader
cultural context created by the mediated environment that we live in.
Social comparison theory
According to social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) people have a
fundamental drive for self-evaluation. When objective means of evaluating oneself are
unavailable, individuals tend to compare themselves to similar others. Comparisons can
be upward or downward as well as universalistic (i.e. media images) or “particularistic”
(i.e. known individuals) (Morrison et al., 2004).
Recent research shows that people also compare themselves to dissimilar others
(Martin & Kennedy, 1993) along dimensions including physical appearance and eating
habits (Wheeler & Miyake, 1992). The affective outcomes of the comparison are
influenced by the direction of the comparison (i.e. upward or downward) and by the
characteristics of the target (whether it is universalistic or particularistic).
Women and girls frequently compare themselves with unrealistic, idealistic, thin
images of women that appear in the media. The extent to which females engage in
upward social comparison with the universalistic targets, which set the beauty standards
for society, predicts a decrease in appearance self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, number of
diets undertaken to lose weight, and use of harmful weight control practices (Morrison,
Kalin, & Morrison, 2004). In addition, females who are insecure about their bodies are
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more likely to buy the beauty and diet products promoted in women’s magazines because
they believe using these products will help them resemble the media ideal.
Objectification theory
Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) posits that women and girls
living in an objectifying culture learn to perceive and define themselves by their external
characteristics (i.e. how they look) rather than internal characteristics (i.e. how they feel)
or competence. Essentially women take an observer’s or third person perspective of their
own bodies, treating their own bodies and individual body parts as if they were objects to
be viewed and evaluated.
Objectification occurs through both visual and verbal framing (Fredrickson and
Roberts, 1997). Essentially mediated images of idealized women and textual framing
stressing looks and focusing on singe body parts socialize women to be aware of the
importance of the thin female ideal and of being evaluated on their physical appearance.
This theory helps explain why women often feel shame and anxiety after viewing
an image of a thin model or reading an article about ways to lose weight or look sexy and
toned. The negative affect my compel women to buy women’s magazines to discover the
beauty and weight loss secrets “revealed” between the covers. Or in a “I’ll never look like
that (the cover model), so I might as well eat that (the cover cake)” mentality, the
negative feelings may result in the consumption of “yummy” food also promoted in these
magazines.
Cultivation theory
Cultivation theory (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994) suggests that
repeated exposure to media content leads readers to begin to accept media portrayals as
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representations of reality. As Levine and Smolak explain (1996, p. 250), “The constant
repetition of certain forms and themes (values) as well as the constant omission of certain
types of people, actions, and stories, powerfully influences and homogenizes viewer’s
conceptions of social reality.” This cultivation can have an impact even on light viewers,
because the influence on heavy viewers has an impact on the entire culture.
This theory predicts that the bombardment of images of thin women in the media
creates a sense that extreme thinness is the norm in real life (Harrison, 2003). While only
5-10 % of American women are naturally thin, the remaining 90-95% are vulnerable to
the message that they are abnormal and need to improve themselves by dieting,
exercising, and losing weight (Seid, 1994).
To help women comply, magazines are filled with formulas and fad diets to attain
the desired physique. However, media content pertaining to nutrition and weight loss is
frequently erroneous and cultivates the belief that weight loss is quick, simple, and easy
and can be achieved by anyone who consumes the prescribed foods and diet products. In
addition, the pairing of cakes with diet claims unconsciously primes the reader into
believing that with this regime she can lose weight and eat cake.
The reality is that 85% of the variance in weight is genetic (de Castro, 1993).
Dieting is ineffective, counterproductive and not the answer to solving the obesity crisis.
It increases chronic stress and cortisol production both of which are known to cause
weight gain (Tomiyama et al., 2007). In the long run one to two thirds of dieters regain
more weight than they lost (Mann et al., 2007). The diet industry relies on this failure to
make its profits.
Uses and gratifications theory
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Uses and gratifications theory takes into account individual agency in the
selection of media and looks at the motives for media use and the needs that media use
satisfies. Women’s magazines provide a social function, helping women fit in with
society and creating a shared culture. They also have a cognitive function, providing
information and discussing relevant issues and events (Payne et al., 1988). Consumers
also find women’s magazines entertaining and read them as a reward and a ritual (YtreArne, 2011).
Women also read these publications not only to obtain information about how to
resemble the media’s beauty ideal, but also as a source of inspiration and motivation to be
thin. For example, the March 15th, 2010 cover of Women’s World proclaims “Sick of
Being Fat? Drop up to 40 lbs a month” and then includes before and after pictures of
Allison who “speeded off 70 lbs.” Inside readers learn about Allison and author, Tosca
Reno “a worn-out mom” who “discovered a diet that changed her life.”
Uses and gratification theory suggests that while the frequency and content of
mass media images and messages are powerful, this influence is mediated by women’s
and feelings about their own body image (Hesse-Biber, 2006). For example, Davis (2000)
in research examining culture as a mitigating factor in adolescents’ media uses and
gratifications, found that while white readers were interested in beauty products and
images featured in teen magazines, black readers were largely uninterested because the
white beauty ideal portrayed conflicts with African-American standards of attractiveness.
Agenda setting theory
According to agenda-setting theory (McCombs & Shaw, 1972), media influences
audiences through their choice of what and how strongly to feature stories. Women’s
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magazines tell their audience what to think about and reinforce the values and agenda set
by the editorial staff. As Thoman (1999) notes, media messages in women’s magazines
and elsewhere, are “constructed” using a creative language with its own rules. The
writers and editors determine and create the values and points of view expressed in texts.
The agendas they set are almost always motivated by profit.
Farkas (2008), in an analysis of three women’s wellness magazines (Shape,
Fitness, and Self), concluded that these magazines define wellness for women, but the
definitions limit women’s power and exploit female insecurity. These magazines also
present information out of context and define a woman’s success in terms of her ability to
remain youthful and slender.
The purpose of women’s magazines is not just to attract and satisfy readers, but
also to deliver a specific audience to advertisers. Media producers attract a particular
demographic and persuade their audience to buy the advertisers’ products (Bartholow,
Dill, Anderson, & Lindsay, 2003). For example, a women’s magazine might target
middle-aged women and try to sell them weight loss or anti-aging products.
While magazines are a major cultural influence for American women (Danowski,
2008) magazine covers, which are carefully designed by editors, are particularly
influential because exposure is almost impossible to avoid, even by individuals who do
not want to read them. As Johnson and Prijatel (2000) state:
The cover is the most important editorial and design page in a magazine. The cover,
as the magazine’s face, creates that all-important first impression. It also provides
both continuity through format recognition and change through intriguing cover
lines from issue to issue. Editors, art directors, publishers, and circulation directors
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spend hours trying to select the perfect cover for each issue—one that sells out at
newsstands and creates a media buzz. (p. 240)
A content analysis of a year’s worth of covers from popular women’s magazines
(Danowski, 2008) found that the most common subjects covered included food/cooking
followed by weight loss, medical, celebrity/entertainment, and fitness/mental health.
Danowski (2008), an expert on eating disorders, remarked on food/cooking articles next
to weight loss headlines, saying, “It seems as if these women’s magazines are trying to
attract those who enjoy eating sweets but also want to lose weight. While this may appear
to be a valid marketing technique, the implications of the contrasting messages cannot be
overlooked.” (p. 121)
Study 1
Woman’s World
In Study 1, we analyze the covers and related interior copy of Woman’s World
magazine. We chose Woman’s World because of the blatant use of bipolar food message
and because of its high circulation and thus its ability to reach more women than its
competition. Recently Woman’s World outsold People, which had been number one for
years, as the top selling newsstand magazine for the first half of 2010 (MediaIDEAS.net,
2011; Crain’s New York Business, 2010).
While magazine sales have seen declining (MediaIDEAS.net, 2011), Woman’s
World is consistently among the best-selling women’s publication in the United States,
with a weekly circulation of 1,366,748 and yearly circulation of over 71 million (Bauer
Media Group, 2010). While for most magazines newsstand revenues are a small
percentage of sales, 92% of Woman’s World magazines are sold at newsstands. This
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statistic indicates that Woman’s World, which at $1.79 per a copy is relatively
inexpensive, is an impulse purchase, making the cover copy a particularly vital selling
tool for the publisher.
According to the publisher’s mission statement, “Woman's World is written for
the traditional, family-oriented working woman. Their reader is a “devoted Wal-Mart
shopper,” with an average yearly family income of $52, 822 (Bauer Media Group, 2010).
Woman’s World’s audience is 95% female, with the median age of readers being 49.3.
This demographic (female, age 40-59) has the highest prevalence of obesity in America
with a rate of 38.2%. (Flegal, Carrol, Ogden, Lester, & Curtin 2010). It therefore follows
that a high percentage of Woman’s World’s audience is overweight or obese and
simultaneously interested in weight loss and high calorie desserts. According to the
publisher, 27% of Woman’s World readers are dieting for weight loss (Bauer Media
Group, 2010). The actual percentage is probably higher given that at any time, 47 percent
of U.S. adults are dieting (Tomiyama et al. 2010).
We designed our content analysis of Woman’s World covers and related interior
text to address health issues, particularly weight loss, eating, and related concerns. Our
hypotheses were: 1) The majority of major headlines will fall in the diet/weight loss
category. 2) The majority of covers will feature both a dessert and a weight loss feature
headline. 3) The majority of covers will include an image of a cake or a version of cake
(e.g., cupcakes). 4) The majority of health-related headlines will use a “magic bullet”
approach to solving complex problems. 5) In the majority of issues, the calorie count for
the featured meal presented in the interior (a.k.a. the “centerfold meal”) will exceed the
calorie count for the entire day on the featured diet.
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Method
Materials. We requested and purchased, direct from the publisher, two issues of
Woman’s World magazine per month for the period of one year. Most were the second
and fourth issue of the month. If either of those issues was unavailable, the publisher
substituted the next available issue. This resulted in a total of 24 issues dating from
September 14, 2009 to August 23, 2010.
Following the lead of previous studies that analyzed women’s magazine covers
(Danowski, 2008), we chose 24 issues across one year in order to be able to generalize to
the magazine’s current cover nutrition and health messaging formula. This date range
covered the period in which the magazine replaced People as the top selling newsstand
weekly in the United States.
Design and procedure.
Preliminary analysis. To familiarize ourselves with the magazine layout and
typical headline topics, we examined several issues of Woman’s World outside of our
content analysis sample. We noted that the cover format includes a headline in the largest
print, on the right side of the magazine over the cover model. We call this the major
headline. Additionally, there are headlines that run along the left and the right margins of
the cover. In addition to reading the cover copy, we planned on reading the corresponding
articles inside the magazine for our analysis.
Magazine headline categories. We began with the 17 categories Danowski
(2008) used to analyze top selling women’s magazine covers and modified them to
expand the health related categories and to fit the headlines we’d seen in our preliminary
work. Our final list contained 19 categories. The non-health categories were:
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food/cooking, relationships (including parenting), beauty/fashion, home, finances/career,
travel, holiday, fiction and other/miscellaneous. The health categories were: general
health, weight loss/diet, exercise, medical condition, stress/tension, happiness/positive
mood, cognitive (e.g., memory problems), fatigue/sleep, and anti-aging.
Coding. Two coders, the authors, read and rated each of the 24 magazine covers
and the corresponding interior articles. The authors designed the study and the coding
scheme together after examining and discussing several issues of the magazine not used
in the study proper. The coders first practiced on issues of Woman’s World not used in
the study and compared responses to make sure their ratings were calibrated.
We first coded the major headline and the left and right columns of headlines by
category. Each of these headlines was also coded as to whether it fit the definition of
magic bullet. A magic bullet is a simple remedy to a complex problem (such as a pill,
drug or therapy) especially a cure for a disease. Magic bullets may involve ingesting a
substance or using a simple ‘trick’ to cure a complex problem” (Macmillan, 2010).
Suggesting, as the covers of Women’s World do, that chocolate cures depression, eating
pie prevents breast cancer, or drinking blueberry juice will result in a 30 pound weight
loss exemplify the magic bullet approach to health concerns.
The coders each performed a simple count for the presence or absence of cake
images (including cupcakes, cheesecakes, and all varieties of cake) and other non-cake
foods on each cover. The first author, a registered dietitian, rated the adequacy of the
diets featured on the magazine covers and interior copy. Diets were analyzed based on
calories, types of food suggested, and instructions for implementing the diets. Non-diet
recipes regularly featured inside the magazine, referred to as the centerfold meal, were
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also analyzed for calories and nutritional content and then compared to the meals
suggested in the diet plans.
Text analysis. In addition to categorizing the headlines and rating them as magic
bullets, the entire text of the covers of all 24 magazines was submitted to a text analysis.
The text analysis software used for this investigation is called Textalyser and is available
at http://textalyser.net/. Textalyser computes word and syllable counts and performs a
number of operations such as a complexity and readability factor. For our purposes, we
were most interested in the single word counts and phrase counts. Textalyzer also ranks
words and phrases and calculates their frequency.
Results
Reliability. We calculated Cohen’s Kappa as a measure of inter-rater reliability
for both the category and the magic bullet headline ratings. The Kappa statistic is a
measure of agreement that has the advantage of correcting for chance agreement.
Cohen’s  for the major headlines was 1.0. Cohen’s ’s for the other headlines ranged
from .804 to 1.0. For the magic bullet ratings, Cohen’s  for the major headlines was 1.0.
Cohen’s ’s for the other headlines ranged from .814 to 1.0. Cohen’s  for the variables
presence of cake and number of pounds, inches and time for weight loss claims were all
1.0.
Resolving discrepancies. Given sufficient reliability of the individual ratings, the
coders then met and resolved any discrepancies. This process involved looking at each
headline where a discrepancy existed, reading the interior text corresponding to the
headline again, and discussing how the headline fit the variable in question and coming to
a consensus. A similar procedure was used to resolve discrepancies involving whether or
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not a headline fit the definition for magic bullet. The analyses that follow are based on
the data after all discrepancies were resolved.
Major Results
Losing weight by magic bullet. There were a total of 215 headlines and 24 major
headlines. Major headlines consist of the headline itself in the largest type, followed by
phrases that give more detail. For example: “OPRAH’S diet discovery! Anti-aging
miracle plan! Lose 6 lbs and 10” in one week! Add 6 years to your life! Triple your
energy!” We treated the headline and its ancillary comments holistically. As stated
earlier, we also read the article related to the headline to make the most informed rating
and classifications possible. Results showed that for major headlines, 23/24 (95.83%)
were in the category WT (weight loss). Thus, H1, the majority of major headlines would
be in the WT category, was confirmed.
In fact, the one single cover that did not feature a weight loss/diet major headline
was from a Christmas issue whose major headline was “Oprah’s favorite cupcakes.” This
issue still had a diet headline, just removed from the major headline location. The diet
headline on the Oprah’s Favorite Cupcakes issue was, “Negative calorie foods that beat
holiday fat! Plus, crash off 4lbs in 3 days.” Since this headline is a magic bullet approach
to dieting, 100% of the covers featured a caloric dessert plus a magic bullet solution to
weight loss.
We also note that the text of each major headline is printed over a single cover
model, usually a non-celebrity who is white, young, attractive, and thin. We theorize
these images of the media’s beauty ideal elicit upward social comparison which triggers
negative body image in potential consumers who then buy the magazines to learn how
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they can resemble the ideal. Celebrities, most often Oprah (America’s most famous
chronic dieter) or Dr. Oz (a cardiothoracic surgeon who became famous for his regular
appearances on Oprah) also appear on a number of covers.
Having one’s cake. Of the 24 covers, 23/24 (95.83%) included an image of a
cake. The single cover that did not contain a cake image pictured 7 chocolate-dipped
cookies and 3 candy bars. Therefore, 100% of the covers featured desserts, and these
were always paired with diets. H2, the majority of covers would feature a weight loss
headline and an image of a cake, was confirmed. H3, the majority of covers would
include a cake image, was also confirmed.
Category/magic bullet analysis. Further analysis revealed that the most common
cover categories, in order, were: weight loss/diet (16.3% of all headlines/95.83% of major
headlines), food/cooking (12.1%), and happiness/mood (10.7%). For the magic bullet
classifications, 33/34 (97.1%) of the weight loss headlines 0/26 (0%) of the food/cooking
headlines, and 20/23 (87%) of the mood/happiness headlines were magic bullets.
Finances/career (7.3%) and beauty (6.9%) were the next most common headline
categories. Of the health headlines, the next most common were medical conditions
(8.8%), fatigue/sleep (7.4%), and stress/tension (6%). Ratios of headlines that were magic
bullets were 18/19 (94.73%) for medical condition, 14/16 (87.5%) for fatigue/sleep, and
12/13 (92.71%) for stress/tension headlines. These data confirm H4, the majority of the
health-related headlines use the magic bullet approach to solving problems.
Dietitian’s analysis. There were 11 issues that featured centerfold meals. In every
issue (100%), the calories for the centerfold meal exceeded the calories for the entire
day’s recommendations on the diet, confirming H5. The diet calories ranged from 1000
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to 1500 calories per day and averaged 1311, while the single centerfold meal calories
ranged from 1178 to 2006 and averaged 1614.
The centerfold meals were also high in sodium and added sugar and low in whole
grains and fiber. For example, the centerfold meal for February 22, 2010 contained 1938
calories, 113 grams fat (53 percent of the meal’s calories), 55 grams of saturated fat (26
percent of the meal’s calories) and 1,646 milligrams of sodium. As a point of
comparison, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2010), recommends that individuals
consume less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat (about 25 grams per day on a
typical 2200 calorie diet), a total fat intake between 20 to 35 percent of calories, and less
than 2,300 milligrams of sodium.
Analysis of the interior diet revealed that the diets lack sufficient detail,
information, calories, and variety to follow long-term. The diet meals generally consist of
3 choices each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus snacks, which could quickly lead to
boredom. While there are a few exceptions, the diet meals generally include only a list of
ingredients but no recipes. In addition, the portion sizes of the pictures accompanying the
diets appear to be much larger then the actual portions prescribed by the diets. Also the
diets do not take into account differences in age, gender, or activity level all of which
determine how many calories an individual needs for healthy weight loss.
Text analysis. Textalyser reported a word count for the 24 covers of 1990 words.
In Table 1, we list the top 10 most commonly used cover words and their frequencies.
Next, we categorized the most common words by theme including synonyms (ex. fatigue
and tiredness) and forms of the same word (ex. you and your). Before placing a word in a
particular category, each instance of the word’s use was checked to make sure it was used
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in a context that made sense for the category in question. For instance, in the “cure”
category, we included the words “end” and “beat.” Every use of the words end (Ex. “End
tiredness right now!”) and beat (Ex. “Beat the new belly fat epidemic!) was in the context
of curing a condition.
Table 1 also lists the most commonly used themes, along with their individual
word and total category frequencies. The most common words included you(r), pounds,
get, lose and tricks. The most common themes included: you, weight, cure, feelings and
tricks. In terms of the frequency of phrases, this list included many that did not make
sense on their own (ex. tricks that). However, the most common phrases that made sense
on their own were: this week, belly fat, and fat burning.
“Is this for real?” The exaggeratory, even comical, nature of the headline claims
should also be noted. In addition to the fact that headlines and images present the
conundrum between indulgence and restriction, they do so in a particular manner that is
hard to swallow (pun intended). Anecdotally, in a meeting in which graduate students in
psychology were examining the magazine covers analyzed in this study, one student
spontaneously shouted, “Is this for real?” Others genuinely questioned whether the
magazine was indeed legitimate, or whether it was a joke.
This may be more understandable when one reads some of the actual magic bullet
headlines. The following are real headlines from our sample: “Control hunger with
chocolate.” “Beat tension with stress-reducing lasagna.” “Pizza keeps your teeth bright
and cavity free.” “Reverse skin aging by having a beer!”
Some less comical headlines simply made exaggerated claims: “Sick of being
FAT? Drop up to 40 lbs a month with 4 simple, supercharged metabolism tricks.”
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“Natural ‘diet pill’ breaks down belly fat! Lose 8 lbs and-a full size-by next week!”
“Chinese diet tea! Proven to dramatically shrink your BMI! Lose 32lbs and 6 inches of
belly fat-without giving up your favorite foods!”
Discussion
Indulge/Restrict and magic bullet approaches undermine weight loss.
Ironically, if the quick fixes to life’s complex problems existed, Woman’s World would
quickly eliminate its own raison d’etre! As one reader states (Patsy, 2008):
I haven't tried the diets, since there is one a week, they obviously don't really work
or we'd all be thin and won't need another diet. Kind of a joke with the checker at
the grocery store. (p. 24)
The publisher probably doesn’t want the tricks to work because most
advertisements in Woman’s World are for products (from sleep remedies and weight loss
pills to over the counter pain medications and digestive aids) that address the same health
concerns as the magic bullets.
The magic bullet approach and indulge/restrict formula so prevalent in Woman’s
World, and similar publications, undermines weight loss for several reasons. First, the
magic bullet approach can negate the hard work required to lose weight. Misleading diets
can produce set effects (Anderson, 2010). The idea that weight loss can be accomplished
with a magic bullet is strengthened, and the information and knowledge needed to lose
weight and keep it off is impeded. As weight loss expert George Blackburn (2002) notes:
“By promoting unrealistic expectations and false hopes, they [fad diets] doom current
weight loss efforts to failure, and make future attempts less likely to succeed” (p. v).
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Since losing a pound requires a calorie deficit of 3500 calories, it is virtually
impossible to lose the large amounts of weight (on average 9 pounds per week) promised
on the covers of Woman’s World. Losing 9 pounds in a week requires a deficit of 31,500
calories or 4,500 calories per day! The only way to achieve such dangerous weight loss is
through excessive exercise and fasting.
The tactics encouraged in Woman’s World are diametrically opposed to the
position of the American Dietetic Association (2009) which states: “Successful weight
management to improve overall health for adults requires a lifelong commitment to
healthful lifestyle behaviors emphasizing sustainable and enjoyable eating practices and
daily physical activity” (p. 330). One half to two pounds per week is generally regarded
as the best approach for weight loss (National Institutes of Health, 2008).
Moreover, while cake recipes include specific, complete directions; the detailed
guidelines, instructions, and support needed for long-term weight loss success are absent
from the magazine text. Key behavioral elements necessary for long-term weight loss
success such as social support, self-monitoring, self-efficacy, barriers to change,
motivational readiness, weight maintenance, and relapse prevention are generally not
addressed.
The effortless diet solutions in Woman’s World fuel what Policy and Herman
(2000) call false hope syndrome. According to false hope syndrome, self-change is often
seen as unrealistically easy to achieve in an unreasonably short time. In our society diet
success is viewed not just as a means to personal goals, but also as an increase in selfcontrol, ambition, and general achievement in life. This symbolism is founded on the idea
that individuals control their behavior, which in turn controls weight. Body weight is seen
22
as malleable, and people tend to overestimate the amount of control they have over their
size. Failure at weight loss occurs because expectations (how much will be lost, how long
it will take, and how easy it will be) are over inflated. When these unrealistic,
unreasonable expectations are not met, people feel frustrated, and hopeless and give up
the diet (Polivy & Herman, 2000).
Furthermore, dieters tend to set extremely high goals — losing 32% of their body
weight (approximately 64 pounds for a 200 pound individual). According to research by
Polivy and Herman (2000) smaller, yet substantial goal of 35 pounds was viewed by 47%
of dieters as very disappointing. This all-or-nothing mentality or dichotomous thinking,
which may be triggered by upward social comparison and self-discrepancy (comparing
oneself to internalized standards), has been shown to be one of the strongest predictors of
weight regain.
While the cycle of failure and renewed effort characterized by unrealistic
expectations is experienced by both genders, because women face more societal pressure
to be thin and are more concerned with diet and nutrition then men (American Dietetic
Association, 2008), they are more likely to experience false hope syndrome as applied to
weight loss efforts.
Finally, food cues (i.e. pictures of luscious cakes) activate the goal of consuming
high calorie foods and disinhibit the goal of weight loss. Research by former FDA
Commissioner David Kessler (2009) suggests that millions of people have what he calls
“conditioned hypereating” a drive to consume high-fat, high sugar foods (i.e. cake) in the
absence of hunger. Corwin and Grigson (2009) argue that some foods particularly those
23
rich in fat and/or sugar (i.e. cake) are not addictive, but become so following the
restriction/binge patterns of consumption that fad diets perpetuate.
Several lines of research (Fedoroff, Polivy, & Herman, 2003) have demonstrated
that exposure to food cues, including mediated visual images, increases eating especially
in chronic dieters. It is theorized that these individuals are driven not by hunger but rather
by a hedonic orientation toward food. According to the goal conflict model of eating
(Stroebe, Papies, & Aarts, 2008), chronic dieters find it difficult to resist palatable food
because there is a conflict between two incompatible objectives: eating enjoyment and
weight control. The model holds that food cues prime the goal of eating enjoyment and
inhibit the goal of weight loss.
There are significantly different responses to food cues in lean verses overweight
individuals in the fed state. People with higher BMIs seem to exhibit heightened
responses to both food cues and to the anticipation of a food reward as measured by selfreports (Castellanos et al, 2009) and neuroimaging (Small, Bender &Veldhuizen, 2007).
However, there appears to be a decreased brain response after the ingestion of palatable
food in people with the genetic TaqIA AI variant, which is associated with diminished
dopamine 2 receptor density, higher body mass, and food reinforcement (Felsted, Ren,
Chouinard-Decorte & Small, 2008).
Themes and Messages
Text analysis results revealed that the three most common themes on the covers of
Woman’s World were you, weight, and cure. The five most commonly used words were:
your, lbs, get, lose, and tricks. These words and themes represent the Woman’s World
approach to health: suggest magic bullets or tricks that supposedly make health-related
24
problems vanish with almost no effort. For example, the April 12, 2010 issue features a
laughing Oprah with a headline with red letters about an inch tall that says, “Love Carbs?
Lose 7 lbs a week eating Oprah’s diet bread!” Nearby, another headline boasts, “Enjoy
perfect health! Prevent 5 deadly diseases-just by taking your pulse!” Nearby, an image
shows a “cake” formed of wrapped candy bars and reads, “Make happy memories! Nocook! Candy birthday ‘cake’!”
What message does this send to women? To say it is a mixed message about
health would seem an understatement. These covers present two diametrically opposed
food messages. As the aphorism goes: “have your cake and eat it too.” Artist Elizabeth
Patch parodied this approach to women’s magazine covers in a spoof magazine she
dubbed Lady Land. See Figure 1. A parody like this is enjoyable because it pokes fun at
the ridiculous elements of a magazine like Woman’s World. Specifically, it mocks the
cake-plus-fad diet formula. But it extends importantly to another facet of women’s health
that is so important and so lacking in Woman’s World’s approach, namely, the
psychological facets of health. This includes having a sense of perspective and
approaching one’s health with sanity, a sense of humor and even kindness towards
oneself rather than setting impossible goals and prescribing magic bullets to meet those
goals.
Health and well being come from finding wisdom and true self worth and
choosing to listen to one’s body, not attention grabbing headlines that only divert women
from the path of true healing. The danger of the Woman’s World “magic bullet” approach
is that it encourages women to ignore what their bodies and minds are constantly telling
them and instead look for quick fixes that don’t work.
25
Study 2
Method
Based on the results of our first study, we designed a second study focusing on the
covers of popular women’s interest magazines. We wanted to investigate the general
incidence rates of diet and dessert messaging and the simultaneous presence of
diet/weight loss headlines and pictures of desserts on the covers of these magazines.
We chose to compare Woman’s World with sister publication, First for Women
and the top selling women’s interest magazines (Audit Bureau of Circulations, 2010) —
Family Circle (circulation 3,841,651), Good Housekeeping (circulation 4,418,398),
Ladies Home Journal (circulation 3,837,286), Redbook (circulation 2,232,476), and
Woman’s Day (circulation 3,895,814). We selected the latter five magazines because of
their popularity and because they were also analyzed by Danowski (2008) and belong to
the Seven Sisters, a group of magazines that target the same audience as Woman’s World,
married women with children who are homemakers.
First for Women was selected because it is a top selling magazine and comes from
the same publisher as Woman’s World. Furthermore, while we noted that magazine sales
have decreased during the time period, First for Women was one of only three of the top
selling magazines whose newsstand sales revenues rose during that period (Fitzgerald,
2011).
Twelve issues of each magazine (five top magazines plus the Bauer publications
Woman’s World and First for Women) were analyzed. Both researchers analyzed the 12
issues of each of the seven magazines that were displayed on the website magazines.com
during the first week of March, 2011. Four dichotomous variables were analyzed:
26
presence of food pictures, presence of dessert images, presence of diet messaging, and
presence of magic bullet diet messaging.
Results
Reliability and resolving discrepancies. We calculated Cohen’s Kappa as a
measure of inter-rater reliability for each of the variables. Cohen’s  for dessert presence
was .976 and for non-dessert food was .970. Cohen’s ’s for presence of diet messaging
was .951 and magic bullet approach was .951. We resolved all discrepancies following
the same procedure used for Study 1.
Cover content by magazine. Table 1 summarizes data for covers of all seven
magazines by content variables. The data shows the percentage of covers that included:
dessert images, diet images, both a diet message and a dessert photo, and both a magic
bullet diet message and a dessert photo. Presence of dessert photos ranged from 0 to
100% with 6 of the 7 magazines having a non-zero percentage and with a median rate of
33%. Diet messaging ranged from 25% to 100% of covers, with a median rate of 42%.
The diet plus dessert combination and the diet plus magic bullet approach showed a clear
concentration in two magazines, Woman’s World and First for Women, which both used
these two combinations on 100% of the 24 covers in question. In addition, First for
Women showed a variation from Woman’s World on the use of food imagery in that First
for Women showed images of dessert and non-dessert food on 100% of the covers
analyzed. Woman’s World only included the combination of dessert image, non-dessert
food image and diet message on 1 of the 12 covers (8%).
Inferential tests. A MANOVA was conducted using Magazine as the
independent variable and two food-related variables (dessert images and diet messaging)
27
as the dependent variables. A significant effect of Magazine on presence of dessert
images was found, F(6,84)=22.49, p<.001, η2=.637. Pairwise comparisons indicated a
number of differences between magazines on the variable dessert images. These are
reported in Table 2.
Woman’s World and First For Women were significantly more likely than the rest
of the magazines to use dessert images. Furthermore, Family Circle and Woman’s Day
were more likely than Good Housekeeping, Redbook and Ladies Home Journal to use
dessert images on their covers. Significance levels are reported in Table 2. For the
variable Diet Messaging, there was also a significant effect of Magazine, F(6,84)=6.22,
p<.001, η2=.327. Pairwise comparisons revealed that again, Woman’s World and First for
Women were significantly more likely to use diet messaging than the other magazines.
Redbook used diet messaging 58% of the time, which was greater (at a marginally
significant level, p=.057) than Woman’s Day, which at 25% used diet messaging 33%
less often than Redbook.
In terms of the percentage of magazine covers that used either the formula “diet
plus dessert” or “magic bullet plus dessert”, a MANOVA testing these variables showed
significant differences between Magazines on both the diet plus dessert (F(6,84)=22.71,
p<.001, η2=.639) and magic bullet plus dessert (F(6,84)=37.39, p<.001, η2=.744)
variables. Pairwise comparisons indicated that First for Women and Woman’s World
were significantly more likely than the other 5 magazines to use both combinations.
Because both these magazines used both combinations 100% of the time, they did not
differ from each other on these variables. Additional details are reported in Table 2.
Discussion
28
Study 2 demonstrated that there is a range of frequency that 7 common magazines
use dessert imagery and diet messaging on their covers. While dessert imagery was at a
median frequency of 33% of covers, diet messaging was at a median frequency of 50% of
covers.
There was clarity in terms of the magazines that use the diet plus dessert and
magic bullet plus dessert formulas on their covers. Two magazines, Woman’s World and
First for Women, used these both formulas 100% of the time. The next closest magazine
was Woman’s Day, which used the diet plus dessert formula on 17% of their covers. Both
of these magazines are published by Bauer, who uses this approach to encourage impulse
buying at the grocery store checkout.
Bloomberg (2009) notes that “all of Bauer’s magazines sell an unusually high
percentage of magazines that way [at the newsstand].” This formula has proven
successful for Bauer, with Woman’s World surpassing sales of long-time number one
selling People magazine during the period of this investigation. And herein lies one of the
central messages of this paper, that those sales are garnered by dangling quick fix weight
loss tricks and pictures of cake in front of women who have just finished their grocery
shopping. Bauer has figured out the formula for top sales: women’s diet and food
fantasies and our vulnerabilities.
Conclusion
People living in industrialized countries spend most of their waking hours
consuming media that is powerful and effects individuals and society in profound ways
often producing unintended, negative consequences. Most people deny or are unaware of
the impact the media has on them. They are pawns vulnerable to corporations hungry for
29
profit. As Beth Mansfield spokeswoman for CKE Restaurants, which owns Carl’s Jr. and
Hardee’s explains, "The bottom line is we're in the business of making money, and we
make money off of what we sell. If we wanted to listen to the food police and sell nuts
and berries and tofu burgers, we wouldn't make any money and we'd be out of business."
(Berrnstein, 2011)
We have argued that bipolar food media messaging displayed so flagrantly in
magazines like Women’s World contributes to an American way of eating characterized
by indulgence and obesity on the one hand and dieting and disordered eating on the other.
Promoting quick fix weight loss solutions that don’t work along side high calorie foods is
unethical and ultimately undermines the boring, sensible approach to weight loss and
healthy eating championed by nutritionists and authors like Michael Pollan (2008, p. 1):
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Following Pollan’s advice, if the average American (who consumes 50 gallons of
soda and other sweetened beverages annually) simply stopped drinking soda (which is
not a food), he or she would lose 25 pounds in a year. Not exactly 30 pounds in 30 days,
but substantial and sustainable weight loss none the less.
According to cognitive scientist George Lakoff, people think in terms of frames,
which are largely unconscious conceptual mental structures or shortcuts that shape how
we think about and make sense of the world. For example, thinness is associated with
beauty, health success and control (i.e. “You can never be too rich or too thin.”). In
contrast, while fatness used to denote abundance (i.e. “Live off the fat of the land.”),
fatness is now viewed as ugly, unhealthy, and even immoral.
30
The danger of the indulge/restrict media messaging is that it frames the issue of
food and body weight in a way that evokes a predictable, yet detrimental response that
impacts individual behavior, socio cultural consciousness, and public policy.
The indulge frame which seduces with messages like “you deserve a break today”
(McDonald’s), “Hungry? Grab a Snickers,” or “Have a Coke and a smile” gives us
permission and encourages us to eat with abondon. The restrict frame with its success
stories, before and after photos, and outrageous promises reinforces the belief that
personal victory is the answer to the obesity problem.
Historically obesity has been blamed on the individual and therefore framed as a
problem caused by failure of “personal responsibility.” However, recently many public
health experts advocate a shift in culpability that focuses instead on the “toxic
environment,” which promotes over-consumption of calorie-dense, nutrient poor foods
and sedentary behavior (Schwartz & Brownell, 2011). They favor measures such as
broad-scale reformulation of the food supply, taxation on junk food and soda, and tighter
regulation of food advertisements particularly to children.
While our research points out how prevalent bipolar food messaging is in certain
women’s magazines and theorizes about its destructive nature, more research is needed to
understand the specific impact these messages have on eating behavior and body image.
There is a need for quantitative research that studies the unconscious impact of these
messages as well as qualitative work that explores the question of how people interpret
these messages. Do they believe these diets work? Are they disturbed by the juxtaposition
of cake with diet information? Have they taken any advice from the magazines and if so
what have been the consequences. In addition, research is needed to around framing and
31
persuasion to develop effective communication tools and strategies that turn people away
from manipulative indulge/restrict messaging and turn them towards healthy eating and
body appreciation at every size.
Figure 1. Artist Elizabeth Patch parodied the “have your cake and eat it too” approach
used on the covers of Woman’s World magazine.
32
33
Table 1
Most Common Words and Themes on Woman’s World Magazine Covers
Top Single Words
Your
Lbs
Get
Lose
Tricks
Stress
You
New
Energy
Week
Top Themes
You
Weight
Cure*
Feelings
Time
Tricks
Fatigue
Get
Stress
Cake
Make
Easy
Natural
Research
Word Count
86
30
19
19
19
17
16
16
16
15
Words Included in Theme (with single word counts)
You (16), your (86)
Lbs (30), lose (19), fat (15), diet (12), slim (9), weight (8)
Cure (13), cures (12), beat (10), breakthrough (10), prevent
(9), end (7)
Fun (14), easy (13), feel (11), happier (9), love (7), pain (7)
Week (15), day (14), winter (9), holiday (11)
Tricks (19), secrets (12), secret (6)
Energy (16), fatigue (8), tiredness (6)
Get (19)
Stress (17)
Cupcake (9), cheesecake (3), cake (3)
Make (19)
Easy (13)
Natural (12)
Research (11)
*All terms used in the context of curing a condition.
Theme list includes all word counts over 10 instances.
Instances
102
93
61
61
49
37
30
19
17
15
15
13
12
11
34
Table 2
Percentage of Seven Popular Women’s Magazines Featuring Diet and Dessert Content
on Their Covers, Study 2.
Magazine
Family Circle
Desserts
33% a,e
Diet
42% b
Diet +
Diet +
DessertMagic Bullet
8%a
0% a
First for Women
100% b
100% a,d,f
100% b
100% b
Good Housekeeping
8% a,d
33% b
8% a
0% a
Ladies’ Home Journal
0% a,d
50% c
0% a
0% a
Redbook
8% a,d,f
58% e,g
0% a
0% a
Woman’s Day
42% a,c
25% b,h
17% a
8% a
Woman’s World
100% b
100% a,d,f
100% b
100% b
Note. Magazines with different superscript letters in the same variable column differ from
each other on the variable in question at the following levels of significance:
a,b
p< .001
c,d
p< .01
e,f
p< .05
g,h
p< .06 (marginal significance)
35
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