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Jaiboy Joseph

Here are some of the famous `before and after' ads that made history.

THE `Before-and-After' method of advertising is a time-tested device to instantly get the message across. Cosmetics manufacturers revel in this mode as do makers of detergents, drugs and a variety of other products.

Ads tell you to use a particular cream, and presto! The skin is cleared of all blemishes. People suffering from sprains, aches and colds are cured within seconds of applying balms and popping pills. Graphics portray the person in pain and discomfort side by side with a picture of him transformed.

In TV spots, such dramatisations sometimes are too funny for words because of the lightning speed in transformation. Print ads by their very nature strain our credulity much less as we are left to digest the message at leisure. There is, however, no denying about the power of both channels employed in synergy.

Recently when the wrinkle-vanishing cosmetic drug Botox was on the verge of approval by the FDA in America, an ad writer quipped that he feared it would become "a before-and-after fad in danger of being overdone".

Celebrities with heavily lined faces would be shown as also their visages minus the frown, and in the bargain looking younger. For showbiz folk, especially actresses, the product could be a real godsend. Male actors with wrinkles that actually enhance their charisma may think twice before trying out. Client Eastwood without his wise furrows would be a disaster, for all you know!

This part of the world, a somewhat fair complexion, it is strongly assumed will get you places. Social reformers will warn it is high time we freed ourselves from this obsession. Black is beautiful, but in the US creams and lotions that promise a lighter complexion still have a large market.

These hang-ups are likely to persist in many cultures both East and West for a long, long time. Such being the reality the so-called fairness creams use the `before and after' technique to good advantage. Thus in a Fair and Lovely face wash ad, there is the dusky gal who is also pictured alongside with her face shades fairer. Fair and Lovely Fairness cream, which has had a run of success now for years, advertises with verve both through commercials and print. I remember a beautician telling me that far from claims being baloney, the HLL brands do work, which is saying a lot.

Emami makes bold in its ads to tell you how long it would take for the miracle to happen. They offer "fairness in six weeks".

Obesity and nutrition specialists show Sumo-like figures turning svelte after therapy. The visuals could be clinchers, but what excites further interest are the testimonials.

The most remembered ad in the genre in advertising history is the cartoon strip showing a weakling who always got sand kicked in his face. One day he starts on a Charles Atlas course of physical training and the next time he goes to the beach all girls are crazy about him. The way I remember it, he gets even with the brute who had earlier kicked sand into his face.

It was an Italian immigrant Angelo Siciliano who changed his name to Charles Atlas after turning out to be a bodybuilder in America. He, along with advertising man Charles P. Roman, created and marketed a highly popular bodybuilding course. He was a miserably skinny lad at first.

The legendary sand-kicking episode used in his advertising was actually based on what happened at Coney Island when he was still a weakling. On the beach a brawny lifeguard kicked sand at him and took away his girl friend. This episode triggered a burning desire in him to build up his body to the extent that he was dubbed `America's Most Perfectly Developed Man'.

It was adman Roman who helped him promote the business of Atlas Homestudy involving isotonic workouts and nutrition tips. Charles Atlas died in 1972, at 79.

In his heyday, many general publications and comic books with worldwide readership carried his famous ad.

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