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So I came across this today, which I thought was quite vile. A brand called “skinny girl” (bad enough in itself) that is promoting “skinny wine” at – gasp! – 15% fewer calories than a regular glass of wine. WTF?
Apparently this is the brainless-child of someone called Bethenny Franklin, who previously marketed a range of “skinny cocktails”…
This supposed “Food-Health-Lifestyle Guru” appears to be promoting more alcohol consumption with less guilt about getting fat, as none of her wine products are lower in alcohol than other wines, and are only slightly lower in calories. According to this Wine Spectator article, most dry wines are about 100 calories per 5-ounce glass, though may vary up to as high as 120 calories. So what Franklin seems to be marketing is the opportunity of doing the same amount of liver damage with only the tiniest bit less damage to one’s already anorexic figure…
…because who the hell else would care so much about 20 extra calories a glass???
casa azahar 
I find this really offensive – I find all marketing campaigns glorifying eating disorders and unrealistic body forms for women to be inane as well as damaging. Money is the only reason to create this market, which should not exist. However, if people are dumb enough to buy it, they deserve what is likely to be less-than-impressive wine, leaving the better stuff for the rest of us.
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I kind of feel sorry for people “dumb enough” to buy this crap. But what gets me is that it is AT MOST 20 calories less a glass than other wines, and usually just the same. I mean, unless you’re drinking three bottles of the stuff a day, how can these 20 calories matter at all?
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Let me guess…your BMI is not where it needs to be. You probably are in the obese category that gets offended by all products advertising lower calorie contents. Does weight Watchers food in the store piss you off enough to post how offended your over-sized feelings are?
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Well, living in Spain you were spared the pathetic and indeed vile ads for Bethenny’s reality show on a channel I normally watch but would turn off when said show actually aired. The ads completely turned me off of her. I don’t even know what her claim to fame was before the reality show, but I don’t really care either. I wouldn’t purchase anything she pimps.
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I had never heard of this idiot before this afternoon. Wow, talk about a shameless opportunist.
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This is the problem with programming and marketing aimed at women — too frequently it trades on women’s insecurities, and gives an avenue to “celebrities: whose only claim to fame is that they’re “famous”. No talent or intelligence required, just a demented compulsion to allow themselves to be objectified. Paris Hilton and Kardashian’s, I’m specifically talking to you…
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Fifteen or twenty calories? I blow through that in the first five minutes on the warmup bike. I’d much rather have a decent glass of wine without a skeevy label. In fact, I think I will, right this minute.
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It is a totally skeevy label, isn’t it? Ick.
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It’s outrageous. Here, it is forbidden to advertise nicotine products on TV – but advertising alcohol is perfectly fine, which is hypocrite imo. And then they complain about binge-drinking youths.
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I just found out this morning that in UK pubs a large glass of wine is 250ml – that’s 1/3 of a bottle in one glass! Crazy.
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I’ve never seen anybody have su8ch a large glass of wine, so maybe they’re not very common?
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The real scandal is what you didn’t hear about: last year it was revealed that the calorie counts on her products are quite wrong. Her margarita mix had more than double the calories listed, if memory serves. These products were created so she could claim they had 50-60 calories per glass, not 20% less than regular wine.
Besides, if you want to get your drank on and save calories, you drink vodka and soda, as so many 20-somethings do. I despise people who like to get drunk but don’t like to drink, and those people are vodka drinkers and this woman’s market.
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I’ve never figured that one out. If they could make a magical wine or beer that had less alcohol,, without that flat, etiolated taste that characterizes “non-alcoholic” beverages, I’d be set. What I want is to enjoy the drinking part without getting more than just a little relaxed. (I once, on a date with my legally blind and therefore non-driving Albino Ex, discovered a spectacular ale called Hop Devil and ordered a second bottle without noticing that the label said it was 10% alcohol, and I had to walk up and down the aisles of a Barnes and Noble next door to the restaurant for half an hour after we got the check until it was OK for me to drive home. He never did quit twitting me about it.)
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This will probably depress you, Raincoaster, but there’s a line of Vodka advertised over on the Weight Watchers site, called Voli…I don’t drink, and even I was depressed. 😉
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Saw Fergi pushing that vodka on the Rachel Ray Show..apparently she partnered with them. And this wine thing is ridiculous. Really, saving 15 calories, big deal. And the sad part is that idiots will fall for it and run out to buy it. Can’t stand that Bethanny woman who is famous for nothing other than being a crass gold digger..
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How was she not sued to smithereens over that, Rain?
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i do!!!! Glad she came out w it!!!!!
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what a scam, it is only lower calories because it is has lower alcohol content, plus they use different glass sample sizes for each wine type to attain low calorie stickers.
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