be careful with your before and after photos!

[steady as she goes]

I was just logging into an application on facebook, when an ad for yet another acai berry diet caught my eye. not because I'm thinking of switching my woe (because I LOVE atkins!), but the before and after photos looked familiar. and what do you know, on second look...it's mitzimarie! as you can see, they cut the top of her head off in the photos, but it was VERY definitely her photo.



be aware that these unscrupulous companies WILL steal your b&a photos to mislead people into thinking their dubious diets work. so disheartening...though in this case, credit to the atkins diet!

mitzi, I guess you can take it as a compliment, everyone thinks you look great!

my suggestion? watermark. I think if I ever do post these kinds of photos, I'll write ATKINS RULES across the middle. hehehe!

[cherribom1]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

Wow that's crazy, I always wondered when this would happen. Can't wait to see Mitizi's response!

[eclectikat]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

did you message mitzi????/
We should all storm the add and demand the removal of her pic! Rally the ADBB TROOPS!!!

[Sherri]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

She's aware of it. It's shown up on other web sites aswell. She's trying to get to the bottom of it.
She's commented on it in her journal.
Sherri

[adreliluc]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

OMG people are just crazy!
I swear, what are some people thinking??
How do you water mark a pic??

[nursemistyford]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

Yeah, I saw one today with Star Jones. Hello!!!!! She has already announced to the public she had gastric bypass surgery... Pretty sure it wasn't Acai berry that made her lose the weight. Ha!

[kimbat06]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

Woww... that's insane. I hope she can get them removed, because that is NOT how she lost her weight! I'm sure she could even have a lawsuit out of it (not that she should, but she can).

[mitzimarie]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

Hello, Everyone!

Thanks to all of you who are following this...

As Sherri indicated, I am trying to get to the bottom of this. Here is a copy of the post I put into my journal:

-----------------------------------------

OK, here's what I think - I've done some surfing around, and I've found similar ads from the same company. They all have the same method of operation... woman tells her story of losing the weight by drinking the juice, and she wants to help others do the same. They all have a blog at something like www.lisaweightloss.com promoting the berry and include a link to order the stuff. Natural Acai Berry All of these girls' testimonies and bios read exactly the same way. That they're a recent college grad, living in Florida (go Gators)... word for word, the same bios. You are able to click on "Comments" to read the comments of others, and leave your own. On the first site I saw the pics on, I did enter a comment accusing the woman of being a thief and a fraud. My comment did get posted, but within 30 minutes the ad had been pulled. So I was happy... until another member clued me in on the current ad on Fitday. I see that all of the comments (plus more) are still on the site... all of them except the one I posted. I'm not acknowledging or posting to the site this time, because I want it to stay there until someone in "authority" can see it. If I tip them off, they'll just move it again.

--------------------------------------------------

So, as you can see, I haven't let these people know that I'm on to them this time... I want the ads to stay where they are until I can line something up. Which isn't easy to do... it's difficult determining exactly who to go to and how to handle it. I'm working on it, though, and will keep you updated.

[melgirl1120]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

Wow that is crazy!!!
Thats a great idea about watermarking pics, I'll put ATKINS right across my pics...LOL
Can't wait to hear the outcome, it isn't right to be stealing some one else's pics!!

[Skeptika23]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

Here's what really is amusing:

The ad says "I lost 45 pounds"... you lost WAY more than that, girl!

Not only did they steal your pic, they minimized your amazing accomplishment!

[blueberrylady]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

Maybe you should talk to a lawyer!

[Chelsey20]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

I noticed this about a month ago. I found this girl about my age that lost about 80lbs on another website and she explained how she lost the weight and it definitely wasn't with that Acaiberry stuff. I wonder if you could sue them for false advertising and stealing pictures.

[Skeptika23]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

It can't be a "fair use" issue - merely putting your before/after photos on this board doesn't imply permission for somebody to use them for a money-making enterprise.

I also wonder if this needs to be brought to the attention of the FTC for false advertising. Perhaps the local state attorney general's office might want to get involved...

[kac1]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

Insane!!! I know from the gossip sites I read that other celebrities are suing for use of their pics as well. It's gotten out of hand.

[tmn]

Re: be careful with your before and after photos!

I copied and pasted my post from Mitzi's journal to here:

Mitzi! I had just found an ad using your pictures. When I came here to let you know, I found Sherri's link to the other thread here. This one claims a 25-pound loss.



It was on Intellicast.com. Intellicast - Current Radar Loop in Saint Cloud, Minnesota (56301) If you keep refreshing, it may show up again. http://www.jennysdietblog.com/?ID=aUSA-cROI7-g-d160A&kw={keywords:AD8}&gclid=COeP0fvSmpcCFQMCagod L1ISJA

The slight variation in my image above is that one came from Firefox browser and the other is from IE.