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July 29, 2006

Weight Watchers and mineral water at BlogHer

The corporate sponsors of at BlogHer are, in many ways, more interesting than the program itself. I say this as someone who's going to appear on a panel in 30 minutes.

I'm trying to figure out exactly what the sponsors think they're going to get out of their connection with BlogHer. I think they see us as "influentials" in a larger social marketing scheme.

I'm surprised that Weight Watchers has such a visible presence at BlogHer. Another group is aggressively promoting mineral-laced bottled water billed as a weigh loss aid.

I was expecting to see a lot more gadgets and gizmos at a blogging conference. There are a few technological services (photo hosting, social bookmarking), but almost no hardware on display.

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Comments

Dare I raise the possibility of unconscious sexism taking place? Do I think that you'd have more sponsors like Dell, Blackberry, Nokia, etc. if this was a BlogHim convention instead? Yes, I think so.

What's the difference between these and GM and Microsoft?

Computers, PDAs, the most advanced cell phones, etc. are technological 'gadgets.' Cars and weight loss products are not. With the the notable exception of Microsoft (and maybe a couple of other companies that Lindsay hasn't yet mentioned), this convention seems largely gadget-free. Stereotypically speaking (I want to make clear that this is not my personal opinion) guys are supposed to be the techno-gadget geeks. That's why I'm guessing (based on little information, I'll freely concede) that there might be unconscious sexism taking place. If it were a convention of male bloggers, I'm specualting that a lot more techno-gadgets would be marketed.

GM and Microsoft aren't in the business of promoting self-hatred.

It's absolutely sexism, and a very ordinary kind. WeightWatchers, etc., aren't paying any attention to BlogHer as anything other than a women's hobby convention. Women=weight loss.

If they had gotten as far as looking at what the subject matter of the convention was, the sponsors might be different, but I don't think they did.

An interesting question that one of my colleagues asked of the workers in the BlogHer sponsor pavillion was "How many blogs do you read?"

The answer, sadly, was almost universally "Read whats? Never heard of them."

As a political mommy blogger, I was pretty taken aback when I was handed the free water and told about its weight loss capabilities. If the additives are calcium and magnesium, then why not hawk its ability to stave off osteoporosis, or to help the body deal with stress? You know, practical things? I immediately scanned the small print--it's a Nestle product. The same corp that was boycotted for marketing powdered formula to mothers in Third World countries where clean water was in short supply. Yuck.

BTW, I attended and enjoyed your comments at the panel.

Bravo for Weight Watchers being hip enough.

Not to mention the message-mixing condoms and bibs in the swag tote. My girlfriend was going through the bag when I got home, and asked, "just what kind of conference was this?" Still, great meeting you in the flesh, Lindsay.

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