Advertising

Photoshopped Ad Doesn’t Change the Fact That Soda Can in Fact Make People Fat

Misleading ad alert!
Misleading ad alert! Photo: NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

By now you’ve maybe seen that poster from the Health Department that purports to show a man who drank so much soda that he developed type 2 diabetes and was subsequently forced to have his leg amputated. (Paula Deen had better watch out!) Except the Times tracked down the stock photo used in the ad and — oops! — the model in the original shot actually has both legs. As you might guess, the trade organization that reps the soda industry is appalled and has called this kind of blatant Photoshoppery an example of a “’What can we get away with?’ approach.” And hey, if anyone knows about misleading advertising, it’s the soda industry. After all, Coke is the company that once ran ads busting the “myth” that soda makes people fat, even though it totally does. [NYT]

Photoshopped Ad Doesn’t Change the Fact That Soda Can in Fact Make People