Now that right there is a classic example of forward thinking, and I applaude you. Something like this could easily get a lot of attention.

The next diet guru...
BTW
Check out:
http://www.tapeworm-...-pills-hot-sale.info
Cheers
Tommy

BWAAHAHA!!! I love it daraddishman. Don't forget the "Send your friend a tapeworm" option. :-)

Scoob

Six hours later and I'm still laughing. :-)

Picture the t-shirts, a big tape worm graphic with the Your Diet Friend logo and a website. :P

The logo has to to be a big smiling tape worm and at the bottom it says "Taper Down"

Ha ha ha, good one daraddishman.

Very interesting thought.

Satire, may help influence both the overweight and the anorexic?

especially if it includes healthy dietary information.

Exactly CharonV, we live in a world where sarcasm and satire are the default language. With something like this you can make getting the information fun, and make spreading it a viral meme.

Just like antismoking and truth.com commercials.

I know you are joking this time!

Noelius: Maybe... it is a bit tasteless, even for me. :/

It might also discourage the bulimic. Think about it.

The merchandise is unlimited. Kind of like the pet-rock fad (now there was an idea that missed the opportunity for follow-up sales on accessories). You could actually sell rubber tapeworms (not gummy worms -- that would be counter-productive) with individual names, birthdates, favorite foods. And the T-Shirt idea is great too. "Taper Down" -- I would have fallen off chair except it's a recliner.
Did you ever hear the Abbott and Costello joke:
Abbott (watching Costello pig out in a restaurant): “What’re you doing?!”
Costello: “I’m eating for two.”
Abbott: “Two?”
Costello: “Yeah. I gotta tape woim.”

I just Googled tapeworm diet. I cannot believe it. This really is a “diet”. Sick.

By the way, check out your competition: Dr. Kwak’s Tapeworm Diet (Google Images). Each package also contains a bleeding bowl.

That's amazing... Wow very novel concept!

Perfect idea. Reminds me of SHARDS 'O GLASS from THE TRUTH campaign...
(Sorry the link is a bit spammy.)
http://www.spike.com...ards-o-glass/2682054
(And in fact the Shards O Glass page is gone... so all that's left of that campaign is the video. Poo.)

Of course their fault (in my mind) is they specifically mention tobacco.

So, what is the idea way to collaborate on a landing page? Maybe a GOOGLE PRESENTATION? (I really think its inappropriate but just brainstorming on that.) Is there anything like Google docs in terms of tight collaboration on a few pages?

Because a Wiki is poor for layout, right? Maybe the multimedia Wiki featured in Wikipedia could cut it?

You could sell it to McDonalds. A Tapeworm burger to start the process and then Tapeworm killer milkshake to finish it after few months. It will not hurt their reputation neither ;-)
But serious man thing is distasteful. I can be fat like a Zeppelin, but nobody will put this thing inside my guts...
I think I would develop an "alien complex" as well!!!

Yeah, and what about adding a small sonar with handy little screen and treat it as a pet ?

Am I the only one who can see this going horribly, horribly wrong when the gullible public actually starts believing this rubbish? :-P

GordonMcDowell: I was first going to testbed the idea here and see what happens, I was being largely tongue-in-cheek when I posted it. ( It was a good safe way to cut my teeth on posting an Idea here. ) The fun part about stuff like this is blurring that boundary between advertising, satire, and "the real world".

Building the initial site would be pretty easy, I'd ask for some help from the CH crew on getting the bits built and designed up. Maybe a wiki could do it? I don't know for sure. It may need to move to something more like Joomla or Drupal, but that feels like serious overkill for collaborating on a site like this. I'll have to take a think on what technology would work for something like this. It also depends on how big a collaborative group... 4? 10? 100,000? Anyone have other suggestions on technology that could work?

PhillipH: That's the fun part! Can you imagine the publicity?!

I think the real crowd sourcing would come into it with the marketing, research, and developing concepts for spreading the meme. A perfect example is "Taper Down", that is awesome, it's a wicked viral message that could be branded and sent out through the Your Diet Friend site.

culture jamming for what purpose? to make people who should want to lose weight want to lose weight? to motivate and energize people who should lose weight to lose weight?

Emesee: to culture jam the fad diet obsession. Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, LA weightloss, Pill ads in the backs of magazines, Cosmo, etc. They all push a quick fix attitude on health and wellness that is associated almost entirely with weight and dieting. The goal would be to push that to an extreme as a form of satirical commentary. The idea is to point out how stupid these fad diets and obsessions are through a disturbing extreme.

Might as well use WordPress you you don't want a complex cms. It is actually pretty nice.

i accidentally encounter this...
http://www.tapewormdiet.net/

a joke site?

Kevin_Cox: I don't know, Moveable Type is attactive too. Just costs money to get a pile of collaborators involved. Not sure if it is 100%, sing theming usually has to be dealt with by one key person. Hmmm...

Magicaito: I believe this was a diet at one point in the 1800s. It's also been revived in various forms I think, but it is currently illegal according to the FDA. :P