MiloCast

On my way to work, I sometimes stop at a rest area which contains a Starbucks and a Burger King. I may patronize one or the other, but if there’s a long line I won’t bother. It’s bad enough I’m buying that stuff without waiting in line for it. Today I did wait in line, however, because the traffic was so bad outside that I wanted to kill some time. I had left my iPod (and thus the podcast I had been listening to) in the car, so I ended up watching the muted television as I stood in line for Starbucks.

On the screen was an infomercial for yet another fitness system. There were pictures of people working out in groups, working out at home in front of their televisions, and the obligatory before-and-after photos. The photos are what really annoyed me. The sad part is that they were probably extremely convincing to a lot of people, and would have convinced me if I didn’t know certain things.

First of all, although there were many people shown sweating and exercising, there were only two people depicted in the before-and-after photos. One man and one woman. However, in the few minutes I was waiting in line, the same photos were shown on screen several times each.

The most obvious discrepancy was that both “before” photos showed the person completely pale, and the “after” photos showed them each with a dark tan. The “before” photos were very bright — almost over-exposed or washed out. Also, neither person was standing the same way in both photos. The “before” people were always facing the camera directly, with their body as wide as possible. Their arms hung down by their sides, their legs were together, and they had sad little expressions on their faces.

However, both “after” pictures featured smiling faces, facing the camera at a three-quarter angle to fully display their narrow abdomens, with arms raised in a triumphant pose, and legs bent and separated. Since each set of photos was shown multiple times, it was easy to see that there wasn’t an amazing difference in either photo.

Here’s another piece of intel for you: Infomercials have been known to hire a fit person to intentionally gain weight and pose for a “before” picture, then go back to their normal lifestyle, lose the weight, and claim that the product they’re advertising is what did it. I’m not saying that’s what these people did, but the “before” pictures I saw on-screen looked to me like people who had already been working out, but weren’t quite there yet. Or maybe they had been there, but spent some time at McDonalds preparing for their photo shoots. Dishonest commercial makers have been known to hire active, fit people who have gained weight due to injury or pregnancy for the same reason.

Also, it’s extremely unlikely that the dozens of fit young adults in the group exercise scenes got in that condition from the product they were helping to sell. Think about it. When you invent a fitness product, do you go find a fat guy and get him to use it until he looks good enough to sell it, or do you find a guy in a gym and pay him to put on a tight workout outfit and get sweaty for the camera?

Obviously I’m not claiming I know that any of these things took place in this particular case, although I strongly suspect they did. The important thing is that people are aware of these practices and take their fitness product advertising with a dose of logic, instead of at face value.

Bear in mind that I’m not in any way suggesting that the product wouldn’t work if used as instructed. Actually, there are plenty of programs which encourage eating a more healthful diet and exercising more which will work wonderfully, if they are followed for a few months. In fact, if you join a gym you will probably get a free session or two with a personal trainer. Just do what they suggest, on the schedule they suggest, and you’ll see some great results within three months.

Just don’t believe that anything you see on television is somehow special, and will help you finally get in the shape you’ve always wanted to be in. People have been in great shape and in horrible shape probably since we’ve had people, and we have yet to see a product which has been proven to do something not already done by plenty of other people by other, cheaper means. But most importantly, do not try something, fail, and then conclude that you’re a loser because all those people on TV could do it but you couldn’t. They just went to the gym and worked at it. No miracle product whipped them into shape, just like no great trick makes me a better magician and no expensive tool makes me a better mechanic.

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