A Picture Tells A Thousand Lies

When it comes to selling a weight loss product, the oldest trick in the book is for companies to be liberal with the airbrush. They take an image of an overweight person, slumped and unhappy, and use this as their pre-diet shot. For the post-diet shot, the same person is shown, complete with huge grin, several stone lighter and looking healthy and happy.

The images are meant to convince people that whatever product the company is trying to sell is effective. They are using a visual aid; while this is an accepted part of marketing practice, when it comes to weight loss these images usually lie.

A person skilled with an image editing programme can achieve the same weight loss look using the exact same photograph of the person as overweight. Some companies are even blatant enough to do just this; you can usually tell as the person is wearing the same clothes and facial expression. Some are a little less obvious, perhaps making a slim person appear larger for the before photo and using a real shot for the after picture. However it is done, it is rare nowadays for a product to be marketed using genuine photographs.

Even if you can’t see any airbrushing, various techniques are used in these infamous before and after shots. In the before shot, the subject will usually be slumping, their face miserable, their hair unbrushed and no make up applied. Even if you didn’t change the weight of the person, the after shot – complete with make up, a smile and neatly styled hair – looks much better.

These images are designed to fool, and unfortunately, they do. Instead of being convinced to use a product or diet due to their before and after shots, read the small print and do your research. Try and look online to see if anyone has ever actually had any success with the product before investing. And remember, the most reputable companies feel no need to use these photographs; they are confident enough in their methods to be able to shy away from such blatant trickery.