Buy Walking VideosPrevention Magazine’s My Virtual Model
The advertisement at the bottom of Prevention Magazine’s website said,
“Need motivation to lose those extra pounds? See how you’ll look with your new body!“
I imagined uploading a photo of myself and having a computer program show what I would look like at my goal weight. Unfortunately, it linked me to a computer generated model of what it thought I looked like based on my weight and height and then showed what that computer generated person would look like at their pre-determined goal weight. Sadly, neither picture was even close to looking like me.
Even worse, My Virtual Model has been brought to me by Prevention’s Sugar Solution, which is a diet book that blames sugar for everything from memory lapses to weight gain. When I clicked on the link, it redirected me to WalMart’s website and a picture of Velvet Chocolate Cake (?!).
Prevention magazine has been selling quick fixes for a long time with headlines that scream “Lose 10 pounds in 10 days!” but I have never seen them go this far. Maybe the Walmart link is broken and it was supposed to link to their book. Maybe the Virtual Model is supposed to be motivating instead of strangely insulting. Maybe Prevention magazine wants to help people, but sadly, this time they missed the mark.
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January 13th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Prevention magazine is full of quack and bad advice. The only reason for getting an issue is laughing at it. They always have bizarre break through advice that rings half fairy tail half bad study that they didn’t understand.
PS the cake looks yum though.
January 13th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Okay, let me think this through. A person is probably clicking on that link because they want to lose weight. And they have a picture pop up of a chocolate cake?!!! How cruel is that!!!
March 14th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Three of my friends and I have taken on the challenge in the Prevention magazine we bought. We are training for the walking marathon! In our group of four Three have already lost 43 lbs collectively so far (and one of us doesn’t even have a need to lose any!) and we are just entering week 11! We greatly appreciate the training schedule and believe that you get out of it what you put into it. We are having fun, getting fit and loving it! Thank you Prevention for the inspiration!