History Main / BeforeAndAfterPictures

* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants,'' [=SpongeBob=] is watching a commercial for a product called Anchor Arms. (Rubber gloves that could be inflated to give the appearance of big muscles.) The shark in the commercial is pretty ripped, but he holds up a picture of a [[GeekPhysique skinny]] {{Nerd}}y shark, saying he used to look like that. (It's heavily implied that the nerdy shark in the picture is actually a different shark than the one hawking the product.)

* In one ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' book, Mrs. Heffley starts going to the gym, but ends up quitting after one day. Mr. Heffley, as a joke, duplicated a photo of her in her workout clothes, slapped on "before" and "after" stickers, and stuck them on the fridge. Needless to say, Mrs. Heffley was not amused.

* In the very first chapter of ''Manga/GirlsSaurus'', a hulking monster confesses her love to the title character only to beat him to a pulp when he recoils from the horror. Guess who he meets 1 month later after her diet? [[http://www.mangareader.net/1194-41831-34/girls-saurus/chapter-1.html]]

* The documentary ''Bigger, Stronger, Faster'' 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. The host then participates in a worked photo shoot where Before and After photos are taken mere minutes apart (which, according to at least one photographer, was not unusual). The real difference was body language, better lighting, a spray tan (including having six-pack abs painted on), and good ol' Photoshop.

This sort of play is especially annoying to the scientifically-oriented-folks in the audience, because, from a true comparison standpoint in science, you would want the before and after pictures to be as close as possible - same lighting, same angle, same facial expression, same clothes. The ad creators don't care, because they aren't going for a ''true'' comparison anyway, they're going for one that makes their product look appealing.

* On ''Theatre/TheOddCouple'' Oscar (in a fat suit) was hired by Felix as a last-minute replacement for the before half of a before-and-after shoot, after "the fattest man in the world" refused to do it.

* 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 [[BlackComedyRape relative sizes of their arseholes]] [[DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale before and after the drugs]] [[PrisonRape get them into jail]].

* Disney's Platinum DVD of ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'' claims to have a "Never-Before Seen Expanded Version" of the film, complete with before/after frames. While there is ''some'' truth to this (the film is remastered in the full 2.55:1 negative ratio, whereas previously it was cropped to the more conventional 2.35:1), the 'Before' picture is from ''a 4:3 pan-and-scanned version.''

||be standing up, but slouching, facing the camera straight-on (which does not flatter most people), with the arms hanging down at the side, perhaps pushing out the belly.||be posed dramatically, flexing (or sucked in), with the body at an angle to the camera, or perhaps engaged in some sporting activity.||

||have un-styled 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 [[EveryoneLovesBlondes dyed to a]] [[HeroesWantRedheads "sexier" color]].||

This sort of play is especially annoying to the scientifically-oriented-folks in the audience, because, from a true comparison standpoint in science, you would want the before and after pictures to be as close as possible - same lighting, same angle, same facial expression, same clothes. However the ad creators claim that this is CompletelyMissingThePoint because some people honestly ''do'' look at the pictures and think whatever it is being sold made this person happy and better. The scientifically-oriented folks are not really their target market anyway.

* Tooth whitener ads. Tooth. Whitener... ads. If we're to believe some such ads, the tooth whitener mysteriously straightens your teeth, as well. Others seem capable of clearing up jaundice (read: they tinted the whole picture yellow, even the skin, and if you corrected for that, the teeth would look normal).

* An inversion, of a sort, occurred a few years ago where various online ads for weight-loss supplements used photos which genuinely were normal photographs of the same women, before and after they lost significant amounts of weight. Only problem was that the photos were copied without permission from weight-loss bloggers, who had not been using the supplements and who were not at all happy that their photos had been stolen.

->''"They go round to the houses of parents who aren't very good at being parents [...] and they bring them to a sealed room and they show them like a computer image of what the child will look like at the age of forty, right? And the boy always looks [[ThisLoserIsYou like me]]. Every week they just put up a giant picture of my face, and the parents recoil in horror! [...] Every week, this hideous future of the child, where the child is miserable, and fat, and bald. And then the parents go out feeling terrible, and then they give them a couple of carrots and they go on bicycle trips round the countryside, and they all have a much better lifestyle. And then they bring the parents back in again, and they do another "This is what your child will look like now!" And suddenly the child is smiling at forty, is slim, and, miraculously, IS NOT BALD."''

* In a 2001 episode of ''Wrestling/MondayNightRaw'', Wrsetling/ChrisJericho showed before and after pictures of Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon proving she had gotten breast implants, which she had denied.

||be wearing unflattering clothing with muted colors. The clothing may be entirely too small so that it looks binding and uncomfortable. Alternatively, it could be baggy and shapeless, doing no favors to the wearer's figure.||be wearing fashionable, flattering clothing in bright colors.||

||be wearing unflattering clothing with muted colors. The clothing may be entirely too small so that it looks binding and uncomfortable.||be wearing fashionable, flattering clothing in bright colors.||

[[Folder:Video Games]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M957dACQyfU This video]] shows how dramatically different "before and after" pictures can be taken less than 5 hours apart. The trick is to take the "after" picture ''first'', then take the "before" picture a few hours later, after consuming a lot of salty foods and soda to give yourself a bloated stomach. Add in the camera, lighting, and pose tricks described above, as well as a bit of Photoshop, and you're good to go.