Shameless Loser

I may have mentioned it in a previous post, but The Biggest Loser is...**ahem**...a guilty pleasure of mine.  Not the entirety of each season, but moreso when it gets down to about 10-12 people and the flabulicious drama really starts to simmer.  Honestly, there are parts of the show that I truly can't stand; for instance, after the weigh-in when they go into what I like to call "The Crying Room" and sob and sob and SOB about how their journey isn't done and they need to be on the ranch and they're just finding out who they really are and yadda yadda yadda (wow...when did I get so sensitive?).  Not to mention that I really have no idea how the show is still on the air.  It's in its, what, 13th season?  AND IT'S THE SAME THING EVERY TIME, WEEK AFTER WEEK, EPISODE AFTER EPISODE!!!  WHY, Lord, do people continue to watch men with full-scale back boobs sweat and cry for a straight hour every single week?!  I'm fairly certain that, had this show never been created and we heard that our troops were making Guantanamo Bay inmates watch that sort of content, we, as a society, would be appalled at our treatment of terrorists.

That said, it's still a guilty pleasure and I love seeing those chunkers sweat off the pounds and truly transform themselves into healthier and happier folks.  But, one thing I've been seeing more and more is shamelessly blatant SUBWAY advertising being injected into any given episode.  It's very Truman Showesque.  For example, last week's episode featured a contest between two of the housemates whereby the loser had to buy the other lunch.  Guess where they got the food?  Yup, the House o' Jared.  But, hey, whatever, that's cool...no problem there.  It was the talking head clip afterwards that really got me when trainer Dolvett--what is that, btw, Dolvett?  It's not a name, I'll tell you that much.  It sounds like a car that was last seen in 1973...--started spouting off about how he always recommends people eat Subway because Subway offers subs at under X calories and Subway is easy and healthy and FEH!!  C'mon man, really?  Does it have to be THAT obvious they're paying you ridiculous sums of money to push their product?  It just seems to cheapen the integrity of the trainers who, for some reason, I hold in high esteem after watching them kick that much ass for as long as they've been doing it (and believe me, non-watchers, it's been a LOT of ass...).

It just irritates me.  And, I don't know why, but I'd much rather be subconsciously lured into shopping at Subway by strategic product placement rather than transparent, scripted endorsements.  So, Biggest Loser, let's put an end to the lame, forced narrative ads and stick to what you do best: placing branded foodstuffs around multi-chinned diabetics and letting the schvitzfest ensue!