BALTIMORE (Map, News) - With 68 percent of all adults in the United States overweight and 30.5 percent considered obese, Lisa Davis, Ph.D., a clinician at the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center and a researcher with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health along with Brad MacDonald, the chief executive of Owings Mills, Md.-based Medifast, decided it was time to let the public in on a secret they’ve known since the 1980s.

They co-authored a book they say provides a guide on how to overcome the social and emotional challenges of dieting to successfully lose weight and keep it off.

And that book, “The Secret is Out: Medifast, What Physicians Have Always Known About Weight Loss” has become the focus of Medifast’s major public relations campaign created by Baltimore-based Warschawski, a public relations, marketing and branding firm.

“The goal is really to educate the public and get the message across about the problem of obesity,” said Shana Harris, a Warschawski vice president. “What the book talks about are some of the societal problems that make it difficult for many people to achieve weight loss. Medifast is not a fad diet; it’s what physicians have been recommending for years.”

Medifast is a low-calorie, portion-controlled, meal-replacement program created in 1980, based on clinical data. Harris said that the initial focus of the campaign will target the top 50 daily publications in the top 50 markets across the country as well as securing interviews on network morning shows.

Other events like book signings are planned, but no dates have been set. Warschawski’s public relations effort will be complemented by Medifast’s ongoing advertising.

“We spend over $10 million in consumer advertising each year,” said MacDonald. “We’ll be combining this with our current ads in national magazines. You’ll start seeing our book ads popping up with our other ads.”

The campaign will also include e-mail and direct mail components.

MacDonald said that while the book is currently only available on the company’s Web site, after the first phase of the campaign, he plans to take it to big-box booksellers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Contact the agency

1501 Sulgrave Ave.

Suite 350

Baltimore, MD 21209

410-367-2700

www.warschawskipr.com

bmiller@baltimoreexaminer.com