Friday, March 21, 2014

Sourcing photos: Mystery women edition

I’ve had pretty good luck tracking down the origins of oddball photos used in online ads. But on some I’ve come up short, usually on pictures of women used with online dating services.
Often I can find larger, uncropped or unmodified versions of the same images, but I’m no closer to determining who the women are or where the photos originated.
Here are four examples from Facebook ads below.


The top ad features a young woman in a bikini by a pool. The ad text, which typically has nothing to do with the photo, reads, “Wealthy women looking for some fun.”
I found a larger version of the photo (shown up top), but couldn’t locate any information on the picture. It looks like a bikini competition, given all the onlookers. And the woman looks familiar, like a young Olivia d’Abo.
The larger photos are stamped Silvercash.com, which is an adult online marketing firm doing business with a lot of porn sites. That’s interesting because the same photo was used to advertise a Christian dating service, according to blogger G.M. Frampton.

The next ad features a smiling woman on a couch. The ad says, “Boyfriend Wanted. Browse pics of single women near you with this Facebook app.”
By “near you,” they must mean the Philippines. Because I found the same photo in a set of attractive Filipina women on a website called Perfect Pinay. (Pinay is a colloquial term for Filipina, according to Wikipedia.)
The website’s editor collects photos from across the Internet, according to their Facebook page. So who knows where that particular photo was sourced?

The following ad includes a photo of a woman with disproportionately large hips and thighs. The ad copy reads, “From Russia with love.”
There are two big problems with this small ad.
First off, the woman is Asian, most likely Japanese.
Second, the picture was Photoshopped to make her hips and thighs much larger. That body shape appeals to audiences of websites like Pear Lover.
The original photo is above and the altered version is below.

And finally, the ad “Easy dating on Facebook” includes a shot of a woman lying on a bed or sofa.
I found a larger photo of the woman, but no further information. You can tell she’s trying on ballet shoes, if that helps though.

No comments: