Basic Trope: Photos of what someone looked like before using a product or service are contrasted to pictures of someone after they used it.
- Straight: An ad for Dietix weight-loss pills shows a picture of Alice when she was a fat girl next to a picture of skinny!Alice.
- Exaggerated: The "before" picture is unretouched, showing every flaw in Alice's skin, shot in very poor light, and Alice is frowning and wearing frumpy clothes. The "after" picture is shot in very good light, and Alice has been given a makeover (both from a makeup artist and from a photo retoucher.) Alice is also wearing more fashionable clothes...and mysteriously looks 25 years younger. To the point where it's not clear whether the woman in the "after" picture really is Alice 50 lbs. lighter, or is some model who was younger and thinner to begin with.
- Downplayed: Alice is thinner in the "after" picture, but still Hollywood Pudgy; she still doesn't look like a model.
- Justified: This could very well be the real results of the treatment.
- Inverted: The "after" picture is on the left, thanks to time travel.
- Subverted:
- The advertisement admits that these results are not typical, or that the photos have been retouched.
- The before picture is Alice at the end of a pregnancy, or a mere 6 weeks postpartum.
- Double Subverted: It's in tiny writing, and the photos look mighty convincing.
- Parodied:
- Alice is a 300 lb. white woman in the before picture... and the after picture is a muscular black man.
- The "after" picture is just the "before" picture but horizontally resized.
- The after picture is of an antelope or something that's not even alive.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: No such ad campaign is run.
- Enforced:
- "We need to convince the audience that Dietix works."
- Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket
- Lampshaded: "Look at these before and after photos!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: "Wow, Alice sure looks different after losing all that weight!"
- Conversed: "Is that even the same person?"
Before: "Before" and "After" Pictures After: "Before" and "After" Pictures
