I’ve heard and read a few reports about Oprah admitting that she currently weighs around 200lbs and is very disappointed with herself for getting back up to that weight.  (I’m not criticizing -  as much as I’ve yo-yo’d through the years I can’t criticize anyone for gaining or losing weight)

I saw this ad on yahoo today for Oprah’s diet and thought that was an odd celebrity to base a diet on right now. Then I remembered that this ad is all over facebook advertising as well.

Is anchoring a diet to Oprah a good strategy?  Is her name alone enough to drive sales even if she is on the high end of the yo-yo at the moment?

If she loses weight again and uses another diet do you lose your fad diet credibility?

I thought about all these things and then I clicked the link which took me here. This is a “mom blog” who is linking (via paid referrals I’m sure) to products to sell this stuff. Since it’s multi-level she doesn’t really have her own brand and is trying to leverage Oprah’s name into selling her stuff.  If this mom really exists.

In a time when fake blogs abound – the obvious questions pop out at me – Is there really a Tina Collins, and is she really a mom who lost weight on this diet?

I’m skeptical. This site was started in October, has a bunch of fake looking comments and looks intentionally bad.  I hope I’m wrong.  Regardless if Tina is real or not – Marketing like this makes me feel like I’m being lied to. Good marketing shouldn’t do that.

Dear readers – let’s all agree to never fake it (no fake blogs, no fake moms, etc.).  I think the industry as a whole will be better for it.

Please stop using Internet Explorer 6.  It came out in 2004, is riddled with bugs and forces developers that want to use cool tools like MooTools write CSS and HTML hacks that make me cringe.

I understand you are fearful of change.  I get it.  Don't upgrade to Office 2007.  Doesn't bother me at all. Don't upgrade to Vista.  Heck that OS compelled me to switch to a Mac. I also understand that your IT support staff is not prepared for the onslaught of calls due to the ribbon replacing menus in Office 07. 

But the whole goal of Internet Explorer 7 was to be more secure (i.e. less for you to worry about).  Especially now that it's been out for 2 years.  Also, it's a browser, so it won't crash your network or cause a flood of calls to your IT support center.

In conclusion, this is my plea to you corporate America, to do what's best for web developers everywhere and upgrade to IE7 already.  The world of tab pages and standards based CSS support awaits you.

Sincerely,

Brian Schwartz