I was interviewed for a WW commercial: here's what the process looked like

I was almost selected to be in a WW commercial, so I’m here to tell you what that all entailed in case you're curious! I’ve been a member of Weight Watchers since December 2015, when  they just launched the Beyond the Scale program, and have been a Lifetime member for a few years now. I've lost a grand total of 73 lbs.

I really want to share this process with you guys about how this all worked so you can get a little sneak peek behind the scenes and, in case you’re ever in this position, know what to expect. I ultimately wasn’t selected - and I’m not bitter or anything, so this isn’t being written out of animosity! - but still wanted to let you all get a chance to know what’s behind the curtain.

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It all started with an Instagram Story. I check Stories every so often on Instagram, and as I scrolled through the one for WW, I saw them call out for people to submit their stories online for a chance to be a part of their Spring 2020 marketing materials. I wrote up my success story and sent it along with a before and after of myself, as requested. I explained in depth how I started Weight Watchers in December 2015 after I graduated college and didn’t want to share any of my graduation photos with anyone, and how my mom and I were actually returning to Weight Watchers after we lost weight on it when I was in high school a few years prior. We knew it was a plan that worked for us, so we figured it would work again so long as we worked it.

I was then sent an email from the Weight Watchers team asking for a video of me answering some of their questions a few days later. They asked me a lot of the same questions that were covered in the initial submission, but I had no problem re-answering them so they could have everything handy or however they needed it for the process. I was told that if I was selected to interview, I would be compensated for my time at that second stage. 

Every time they’d tell me I’d hear back from them by a certain day, they’d be very late in this process. I think this was partly because the selection phase was really close to the day they wanted to film - I was interviewing for a commercial that would air in about two weeks. Honestly, I’m not sure if the commercial’s filming ever happened or not due to COVID-19 since this was all happening in early March, but I guess time will tell if we see some spring marketing materials pop up!

Anyways, after a few days where I’d anxiously await a promised email, I finally was told I was moving forward to the interview stage. A Zoom conference call was set up with me and a few of the people with the production company, since WW uses an agency rather than an in-house team, and no one from WW was on the call. The questions they asked me were really redundant in the sense that I had answered these twice now. So if you ever apply, just be prepared to share your story a lot and to repeat yourself.

​No one brought up anything about the aforementioned payment. I didn’t bother to ask in the interview to not seem rude, and the interview only lasted about 10 minutes. They told me they loved my story and were pretty into it, but after a few days (again, much longer of a wait time than promised), I was told by the WW employees who initially reached out that they were going in a different direction so I was not selected. My guess is that it’s because I’m a Lifetime member who is not trying to lose a ton of weight and already has - they were really focused on how much weight people lost on myWW since it rolled out in November, and I’ve been maintaining. 

I politely asked WW about the payment I was promised, and had to follow up with them after a week of no responses. It was then they then told me that it was only for those who were selected for the commercial (as you can see in the provided screenshot, that wasn’t what they told me). After replying with their previous emails to me copied and pasted, they eventually agreed to give me the promised compensation… and that was a process, too. Whoever was in charge of this shoot didn’t seem to really have their ducks in a row. They sent me all these tax forms with things that didn’t apply, directed me to the wrong people to ask for help (and they got seemingly frustrated when I’d reach out to the people they directed me to with questions), and then eventually just gave up and verified my address to send me a check. I got $50, which I didn’t necessarily care about but felt like on principle they should honor what they originally told me. 

All in all, the experience felt pretty disjointed and unorganized. It was stressful not because I was anxious about being selected or not, but because everything was really rushed and all over the place, and communication on their end could have (and should have) been handled way better. I wish I had someone to tell me what I could expect before this process, so I hope now that you can be prepared in case you see a similar Instagram story to the one I did!