Who is popular today?

It’s marketed as wellness, but should children really be counting calories?
Last September Weight Watchers changed its name. It had already rebranded, having dropped 600,000 subscribers and shifted its focus to “wellness” rather than diets, so a name change was not a huge surprise. But what was a surprise was its insistence that the new name, WW, doesn’t stand for anything, not even its new tagline: Wellness that Works. It stands for nothing. The company is back in the news this week with the launch of a new diet app for children. Which, well.
There are small cultural touchpoints that when pressed today cause a sort of shudder, as if you’ve found an existential bruise. Certain handbags, for example, or prime ministers. Pete Doherty. Reading Candace Bushnell’s new book I felt one such shudder. Even though the first time round few of us identified with either the Sex and the City archetypes of womanhood or their ambitions of love (distinguished through huge wealth or big dicks) and friendship (distinguished through aspirational brunch items), we understood their mainstream appeal. Today Is There Still Sex in the City? with its reductive acronyms and designer vaginas arrives with embarrassment and the smell of burning. Like “WW” and its continued rebranding of what health looks like, seeing its flaws from this distance is shocking in its simplicity. We stand aghast beside a bonfire of vanities. Continue reading...