Pet peeve:

I just saw a banner ad online for weight loss. It showed a before and after picture of a girl’s stomach from the side and the “amazing” results she got. It was so obvious that, first of all, in the before picture the girl wasn’t even fat and didn’t have much weight to lose. In the after picture, the lighting was better and she was very obviously standing up taller and sucking it in. I went to the site and she claimed to have lost 40 lbs by taking this green tea supplement. As if! First of all, it’s a fake site pretending to be some true testimonial site. The few pictures on the site (no heads) are stock photos and it’s probably run by some guy in Indian or Nigeria. They didn’t even match the pictures from the ad, which showed a girl who definitely did not have 40lbs to lose.

So many before and after pictures (or informercial shots) are deceptive. In the “before,” the lighting is darker, the person is standing with shoulders slouched and stomach sticking out as far as possible, all the while with a miserable look on their face. Of course that’s not gonna be as attractive as the “after” picture! In that, the lighting is bright and warm, the person is all smiles, standing up straight with shoulders and head held high. However, most egregious of all, in the “after” photo the person is standing at an angle, torso twisted, stomach sucked in. Anyone would look slimmer standing like that compared to the full-on “before” picture. Grrr. It just annoys me that they go about doing it as if everyone watching was an idiot!

Okay, rant over.