If you’re a fitness guru, you’ve got to keep a clean, healthy image – basically, you have to look good, all the time. Take recently passed Jack LaLanne; the dude was a juicer-selling stud right up until his death, at age 96!
And, Suzanne Somers didn’t make a mint selling ThighMasters with cottage cheese thighs and cankles. It might be shallow, but that’s the deal for fitness celebrities. If it’s too much to handle, go be a rock star, then you can smoke, drink, and snort all you want, and the public will still clamor on your every word.So why is it that The Biggest Loser star trainer, Jillian Michaels, is heavily airbrushed in this advertisement? She doesn’t need to be. Jillian is smoking hot. But compare the two ads (both were pulled off Diet-Blog), she looks normal in the one on the left, but on the right, she looks like a 20 year-old coed. Jillian is 37.
Listen, I’m not one to judge appearances. Up close, I look like the dwarf from The Lord of the Rings movies. I wish I could Photoshop my pictures. I would put Tom Cruise’s head on Mr. Universe’s body, and ditch my ugly butt altogether.
But Jillian’s people screwed her here. She almost doesn’t look like the same person. If you’re building a career around your fitness expertise, touching up photos (with the exception of an ornery zit or a mustard stain) is probably a bad idea. It sends the wrong message.
We all know models get airbrushed, but they’re all anorexic and blessed with “perfect cheek bones.” The reality is most people will never look like Gisele Bündchen or Tyrese Gibson. But everyone can get in shape.
Exercise gurus want you to believe with hard work you can look just as good as them. But Photoshop blurs that idea – no pun intended.
And yes, I realize I’m making a mountain out of a mole hill, but in a world awash with misleading marketing, I think you’ve got to maintain your integrity, especially if you’re trying to lead by example.
Image credit: ads by Google
Susan is correct – 99% of all photos used for photo shoots or advertisements are airbrushed to some extent.
My guess is that she’s airbrushed in both pictures.
I do agree. One of the things I have always hated is when a fitness model that recently had a baby would then do an amazing before and after shoot for a supplement company.
Making a generalization like all super models are anorexic is a dumb idea for someone writing for a diet website as well. It may have been meant to be humorous, but the people reading may not enjoy stereotypes being enforced.
This site is good.
Hmmmm… I didn’t notice too much difference.
Sometimes if you stand with your hips facing to the side and then turn your upper body to the front ( like she does in the second photo) it can create the illusion of a smaller mid section.
Wow, if you have to airbrush Jillian, I guess no one is safe. I guess it goes to show you that the media always has to make people more photogenic, better looking, tanner, etc. It’s pretty sad, actually.