History Main / BeforeAndAfterPictures

* An episode of the Flintstones has Fred getting work as the "before" picture in one such ad.
* GoofTroop did an episode about this. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity ensued]].

* ''{{Community}}'' had an episode where they put up a before and after of a space simulator. Inverted in that the before of the simulator is the nicer of the two.

* One ad for mattresses showed before and after pictures intended to show how well rested the couple looked after sleeping on the mattress. I was particularly amazed when sleeping in the mattress resulted in the woman waking up with a completely different man with a better haircut and a six-pack.

** One penis pill (sold by many of the same [[HonestJohnsDealership "pharmacies"]] that sell black-market Viagra) actually ''[[FanDisservice does]]'' have before-and-after pics. Found that out the hard way after [[SchmuckBait clicking on a link in a spam mail]] once...

** I've heard the same story for scrubbing brushes (horrible-looking pan with burnt remains of food - product - shiny new pan) and some sort of tooth sticking paste for when you get a tooth knocked out (young boy missing a tooth - product - boy with full set of teeth). Sadly, this seems to be an UrbanMyth.

You've got a product that you want to sell. What better way to sell it than showing what a difference it has made to your clients! This is especially true of beauty or health-related products, where the change might be visible. Of course, the change should be made to look as dramatic as possible. And we're not talking about merely showing realistic change, [[ThisIsSPARTA THIS! IS! ADVERTISING!]]

* There is a Russian joke about two busted drug dealers who are earning their pardon by dissuading people from taking drugs. The first one shows them a picture with two circles: a small one and a one three times larger - and telling them the circles represent relative sizes of their brains before and after drug abuse. The second one uses the same picture but with swapped circles and tells his interviewees that the circles represent the [[RapeAsComedy relative sizes of their arses]] [[RapeIsFunnyWhenItIsMaleOnMale before and after the drugs]] [[PrisonRape get them into jail]].

* Occurs in a British stairlift advert of all places. It begins by showing a dear old lady being forced to move in to a one storey house (complete with her gazing sadly out of the window at the rain), but immediately becomes sunny and happy when a stair lift is introduced to her home.

* Referenced in a scene deleted from the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled" from ''TheSimpsons''. Krusty is informed by the network executives that his show is replaced by a hemorrhoid infomercial starring Claude Akins. Krusty asks to play "hemorrhoid sufferer number one" and starts acting out the role. The executives leave and Krusty desparately asks to be an after model, getting into that role as well.

||have unstyled hair, typically flat, a bit frizzy.||have well-styled hair. If the subject is a woman, it may be significantly longer than it was in the before picture, or even dyed to a [[HairOfGold "sexier" color]].||

*** an alternative approach is having the model lay down on their back in the 'after' picture to give the appearance of a flatter belly

*** an alternative approach is having the model lay down in the 'after' picture to give the appearance of a flatter belly

* The documentary Bigger Faster Stronger went into this in a fair amount of detail. It showed how advertisers for diet and health supplements will use many of the listed techniques at the top of the page. One of the interviewed photographers admitted it wasn't unusual to do the before and after pictures ''in the very same shoot.''

* Some ads shown in the back of ConsumerReports do this. One example was for a car dent removal service that used different makes of truck. The logos were in the photo.

* Really like this in YouAreWhatYouEat which takes overweight people and changes their diet and lifestyle. At the start they put him under a light (thus creating shadows), in unflattering underwear and looking very unhappy. At the end they're in new clothes with some sort of filter over the lens and of course, they're very happy.

* The documentary ''BiggerFasterStronger'' went into this in a fair amount of detail. It showed how advertisers for diet and health supplements will use many of the listed techniques at the top of the page. One of the interviewed photographers admitted it wasn't unusual to do the before and after pictures ''in the very same shoot.''

||be standing up, but slouching, facing the camera straight-on, with the arms hanging down at the side, perhaps pushing out the belly.||be posed dramatically, flexing, with the body at an angle to the camera, or perhaps engaged in some sporting activity.||
||be photographed in front of a boring background, possibly monocolor or looking like bathroom tile.||be photographed in front of an interesting background, possibly outdoors.||

||be extremely pale||have a lovely golden brown tan||
||have orange, haggard, sun-damaged skin with noticeable tan lines||have delicate, even natural skin colour||

* The documentary BiggerFasterStronger went into this in a fair amount of detail. It showed how advertisers for diet and health supplements will use many of the listed techniques at the top of the page. One of the interviewed photographers admitted it wasn't unusual to do the before and after pictures ''in the very same shoot.''

* An old [[TheHoneymooners Honeymooners]] sketch on ''The Jackie Gleason Show'' has Ralph winning a trip to Europe in a write-in contest sponsored by a diet food company, with the catch that he has to send in "before and after" photos of himself to prove he actually uses their product. He attempts to use Ed Norton as a stand-in for the "after" picture, with predictable lack of success.

* [[BiggusDickus Enzyte or Extenze]] should show before and after photos... har har har.