Swimming Pool Sales Bogosity

[PoolDoc]

Have you ever looked at the Intex pool ads? Have you noticed that there seem to be an awful lot of people, with an awful lot of room in that little 12' or 15' pool? No? Well, take a look at the photos below, from this page: http://www.intexcorp.com/index.php/h...s/56995eg.html

The first one is the Intex original, from here: http://www.intexcorp.com/media/catal..._inuse_200.jpg



Now, look at that picture again. That's a 12 foot pool! That's a LOT of people, for a 12' pool. And, there's a LOT of room, around those people. Doesn't look right, to me!

OK, let's fire up Visio and set up a scale line. NASA has some nice anthropometric data available here: http://msis.jsc.nasa.gov/sections/section03.htm (They have to make sure folks that go into space fit the cabins and space suits! If your dress pants are an inch too short . . . well that's embarrassing. But, it's more than embarrassing, if your space suit is an inch too short!)

It turns out the average adult male is 22" from the outside of one arm to the other. Take a look a the dude at the back of the photo. Now, he looks like a swimmer, and I'm pretty sure HIS width is more than 22", but we'll use 22". However, he's turned to the camera, so we'll need to correct.

OK, 30 degrees off parallel from the camera plane gives us a 19" width on parallel. So we'll use that. You can see the marks I made on the guy.

Copy and paste, copy and paste . . .10 TIMES! That's a total of 190" plus OR 15' 10"! That does not look right.

OK, make a 12' pool outline, using the man-ruler to size it. Nope, something's not right!



Oh, dear. How can that be? I can think of two possible explanations.

1. Intex may have bred a team of special pool midgets they can use in their swimming pool photography. (It's a Chinese company, so they're allowed to do things, like giving Syrian president Assad a hearty pat on the back as he bombs his cities, and breeding pool midget teams!)

2. Or somebody took a picture of a group of people in an 18' round (outside, 17' round INSIDE) above ground pool, and used Photoshop to cut and paste those people into Intex's little 12' pool.

I'm going with #2. After all the pool midgets are Anglo, and I'm not sure even China could get away with breeding a pool midget team using British expats left over from when the UK gave Hong Kong back.

The irony here, is that I LIKE Intex pools. I think they are a great deal. For someone on a tight budget, or who wants to try out pool ownership before they commit serious dollars, I think they are an excellent choice.

But, I don't like deceptive sales.