Let's Play A Game

Alright, time to play everyone’s favorite game: Guess which photo is photoshopped? I know it's a tough call, but as your mom used to tell you "do your best." In case you don't know who this is, it's Lisa Rinna. Her claim to fame was being on a 90s TV show called Melrose Place, and was recently featured in Playboy magazine (May 2009) at the age of 45. Normally, I could care less about the physical attributes of an actress, but this is a different situation. Lisa sells a fitness DVD that claims to be "the workout that transformed her body."

Which body would that be? The photoshopped or the non-photoshopped body? I believe that's a small detail women might be interested in knowing. I don't mean to pick on Lisa, but she's a prime example of an impossible to reach standard perpetuated by Hollywood, that most American women strive to achieve. The average American woman sees these photoshopped images of Lisa in tabloid magazines and believes that if Lisa can achieve that body, then why can't she? And when the average Jane purchases Lisa's DVD, she's going to be greatly disappointed...because the DVD doesn't come with a highly skilled Photoshop editor.
Here's a similar situation of strategic omission. A current female client of mine, used to model for women's fitness magazines in the 90s. When I first started working with her, she brought her portfolio in, showing me photos of what she wanted her physique to resemble again. In all her photos, she was demonstrating exercises using rubber tubing and pink vinyl coated dumbbells. The photos accompanied articles published in women's fitness magazines and had titles such as "Best legs ever!" and "Buns of steel." The funny thing is that when she was modeling for the photos, she NEVER worked out with weights. The only time she ever touched workout equipment was during the photo shoots. So to any women reading this, next time you pick up a fitness magazine promising to reveal the best workout in the world, realize that the model used for the photos is a professional paid for her image. She didn't get her body by performing the workout accompanying her photos.
Not to just pick on women, but men have similar issues. Every muscle magazine in newsstands promises to reveal your favorite bodybuilder's workout routine. Let me let you in on a little secret...the article by your favorite bodybuilder is actually ghost written by a professional writer, and the bodybuilder is paid to attach his name to it. Most professional bodybuilders pay coaches to design their training programs; the going rate is approximately $20-30,000 a year. The going rate for a professional bodybuilder to attach his name to a training article is $1,000. Do you think your favorite bodybuilder is going to reveal his REAL training program that cost 20-30 times as much? So the training program from "Mr. Olympia" was really designed by a ghost writer. Sorry to burst your bubble, but someone had to tell you Santa Claus doesn't exist.