Cooking Up Trouble

I keep seeing something on Facebook that bothers me. It shouldn't just bother me. It should bother Rachael Ray.

These ads are ALL OVER my home page. In fact, in one day, four of them showed up on the right side of the page.

I've seen Rachael Ray lately (on TV, not in real life) and she does look like she's lost a little bit of weight. Not too much, though, because then no one would want to try her yum-o recipes. There's that old rule: don't trust a skinny cook.

But here's why Rachael should be mad: THAT'S NOT HER IN THE PICTURES!

They're showing some ridiculously thin woman who looks like her diet strategy consists of coffee, cigarettes, a piece of fruit and eight hours of exercise daily. NOTE: I might be a bit extreme in my speculation, but if I can see your collarbone, you're not eating enough and someone needs to stage an intervention with you.

If you're foolish to believe you can lose four dress sizes fast without a "crazy diet," you should send me your bank account information STAT so I can help you achieve this goal. Wait. Don't do that. It would make me just as bad as the scammers flooding Facebook with these ads.

If you don't believe me when I say that's NOT Rachael Ray, take a look at this:

Original image can be found here.

That's a recent picture of her. She looks pretty good. Not sickly thin. Healthy.

I'm such a good Internet sleuth (AKA I read USMagazine and know how to Google) that I believe I have identified the poor sap who's being called an insanely skinny Rachael Ray.

Original image can be found here.

That's British pop star Cheryl Cole. If you had something in your eye and tried to focus on that picture, you might think it's Rachael Ray. But it's not. You most definitely should not be online thinking you've found the magical weight loss cure. You need to see an eye doctor right away. And hide your credit cards. You can thank me later.

This isn't the first time I've busted a Facebook ad with misleading pictures. Anderson Cooper never thanked me for this. It's OK. I still love him.

Celebrities may not surf Facebook regularly, but I bet the person(s) tasked with managing their official pages do. They need to contact Mark Zuckerberg and get the site to put a stop to it. It's bad for their image. It's also bad for Facebook. It's the kind of thing that makes me think all the ads - even the ones from brands I know - aren't legit. I know that I shouldn't whine about a site that's free and not a requirement for life, but I hate seeing people and their good names/faces damaged.

So, Rachael, if you're out there, make a call. You don't have to thank me.

Facebook Is At It Again

The other day, my friend Julie saw this ad on her page and asked a good question:

Is this baby wearing a wig? It was kind of hard to see on her monitor. I mean, it looked like it, but it was kind of hard to tell.

Later, I saw the ad on my page and was able to see it clearly. YES, THAT BABY IS WEARING A WIG!

So, judging by the "learn to become a social worker program" ad, I detect a few possibilities.

1. This baby needs to be taken away from her family because they have put a weave in her hair.
2. That's not a real baby. It's one of those dolls that you pull the hair to make it long, then chop it off. (Totally fun until all your doll has is hair nubs that are too short to cut)
3. Once again, FB has just allowed a random photo to be used in its ads.

I've written about this before. I've never created a FB ad, but it's beginning to appear that when building the ad, you can insert your own photo or let them choose a stock photo. How else did Anderson Cooper wind up in an ad for singles?

It's good to know FB is like that creepy relative who only forwards emails to you but never really asks how you're doing or tells you anything about him/her. You love that person anyway, but kind of wish they'd knock it off (hint, hint, FB).

This Will Make My Mother Happy

Maybe.

I have received more than one phone call from my mother asking/demanding I marry Anderson Cooper. It's not that I wouldn't do that in a heartbeat, it's that I don't think he'd be happy (just Google him if you don't understand that it's not me, it's him). She doesn't seem to care about that.

Then, this morning while I was checking Facebook, I spotted this ad:

Take a good look at the guy in the picture. He looks awfully familiar.

Is that a photo of Anderson in the ad? I'm pretty sure he's not single. Also, I'm fairly certain that this guy - who is awkwardly shy - is not trolling the Internet for a potential love match.

Now, while I usually find those FB ads creepy, I'll give them credit for not making me roll my eyes completely. Who wouldn't want their own Silver Fox? I must have mentioned that I love The Coop and they assumed that's what's missing from my life. I get my fix on CNN at night and on Twitter. That's good enough for me. Unless there's a Cooper Clone. I'll take one of those, please. But if the ad is offering old dudes, I'll pass and say FB is back in the creep zone.

Happy New Year!

I made it home in time to spend the last hour of 2008 at home, watching The Coop and Kathy Griffin (my new favorite tradition as I have lost interest in the musicians Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest roll out each year). Now, when I first started watching, 2009 had just arrived on the east coast. That means The Coop & KG had to fill an hour as the crowd in Times Square got the heck out of the cold. This can make for awkward television (which I love - so long as I'm not producing it). They showed bands performing all over the country. I was confused by the choice to include Lil Wayne and his pole dancers. Even The Coop made note of the fact that they could only use the music and not show Lil Wayne's performance.

But as the minutes counted down to 2009, you couldn't help but notice the people yelling not nice things at KG. What didn't help? The fact that she yelled right back at the people. The best response is here - but a warning: the language is naughty. I think it will be my new favorite phrase! Denise & I giggled about it for so long that we realized it was 2009 when they started showing the cities in the central time zone celebrating. Bill was lucky enough to be in the chopper at midnight and snapped this picture.
I will reflect back on the year and make my resolution(s) later. Until then, I hope you had a safe and happy end of 2009 and wish you the best in the new year!