Laurent: Interesting.
Sima: But because we say that it solves obesity, suddenly, it’s a debate.
Laurent: When you, when you say cancel culture, I mean, is that something that factors into your thinking about your message around WeightWatchers?
Sima: I think this has been taken into account in our thinking before. Look, I wasn’t there when we changed the name to WW.
Laurent: Mm-hmm.
Sima: But I will say that I think a lot of it was a shift toward wellness, which seemed to better align with our times. And, you know, when I came in, I wanted us to embrace our heritage, acknowledge our past, and be part of the change that’s coming, because wellness is about achieving optimal health. And WeightWatchers focuses on disease freedom. This is about optimal functioning, and the way to get there is through weight loss. Now, once you do this, you can aspire to optimal health. You may yearn for satisfaction and overall happiness, but we’re not in the happiness business. We are in the field of health and quality of life. And that’s what we need to focus on. So, you know, I would say, at the risk of having this difficult conversation and really letting everyone who works in our company know that everything is okay. And frankly, they felt so unlocked and grateful because so many people who come to work at WeightWatchers do so because the program has made an impact on their lives or the lives of their loved ones. You come to work for a company like WeightWatchers because you’re really passionate about this and what we do, and before when we were trying to say, “No, no, no, no, no.” Look over here, we are wellness.
Laurent: We are well-being. RIGHT.
Sima: We were, we weren’t authentic or true to ourselves and, that’s true. And I think we’re, well…
Laurent: Wellness was presented to many people as a cure for many deeper problems than wellness could solve.
Sima: It’s, it’s absolutely true.
Laurent: You mentioned earlier in the podcast that you were optimistic. What makes you most optimistic these days?
Sima: You know, I’m looking at measures of success in disease reduction, uh, achieving, you know, helping people achieve remission in the setting of chronic illness. Advancing prevention, improving health-related quality of life indicators, helping marginalized communities have better access to obesity treatment, management and prevention. I feel like a paradigm shift is happening right now. And we have the opportunity to harness that energy and attention for good.
