What do I need to be able to prove?

That the result shown is typical, or that you have said clearly and prominently that it is not. This is the substantiation principle behind the FTC's endorsement guides and the UK advertising codes alike, and it applies to the impression the content creates rather than to the words in the caption. A single dramatic result run without qualification is the classic failure.

Can I run before and after content for health or weight claims?

Be very careful, and take advice specific to your market. Cosmetic, supplement, fitness and medical claims are the most heavily policed category in advertising, several jurisdictions restrict before-and-after imagery outright for some products, and a marketplace brief is not the place to work out where the line is.

What has to be identical between the two shots?

Lighting, distance, angle, framing, clothing where relevant, and time of day. If those vary you have not shown a change caused by the product, you have shown a change in photography, and a reader who notices will assume the worst.

Higher than a normal demo, forty to a hundred, because the worker commits to a timeframe rather than a session. You are buying two appointments weeks apart plus the risk that the second never happens.

Commission Before and After Videos, Compliantly

Before-and-after is the highest-risk format on this marketplace, and the risk is not in the filming. It is that the format itself asserts causation, and the assertion is yours to substantiate whether or not you phrased it as a claim.

What to put in the public brief

The elapsed time between the two recordings
That both must be filmed under matched conditions
Whether they must appear on camera
Any eligibility, stated plainly and non-medically
That an unchanged result is paid the same

Keep the product identity private, particularly pre-launch.

What to put in the private instructions

Fix the shot conditions in writing
Same room, same distance, same light source, same time of day, same clothing. Ask them to photograph their setup at the first session so they can reproduce it at the second.
Say what may not be changed
No filters, no editing, no beauty modes, no different camera. Phones apply processing silently, so ask them to note the device and keep it the same.
Ask for a dated marker in both frames
Something ordinary and current. It makes the interval verifiable without asking anyone to hold up a newspaper.
State plainly that no change is an acceptable outcome and is paid
Otherwise you are paying for a result, which is how fabricated before-and-afters happen without anyone deciding to fabricate one.

Proof worth requiring

Ask for

Both raw files, the setup photograph from session one, the device, and the dates.

Do not ask for

A more dramatic second take, a different angle "that shows it better", or any retouching. Each of those converts documentation into advertising you cannot support.

Before you run this at all

Ask whether you can substantiate that a result like this is typical. If you cannot, you need a prominent qualification, and a qualification that appears only in a caption is not prominent when the content is a video.

If the honest answer is that results vary enormously, a testimonial lets a person describe their own experience without the format asserting it will be repeated. That is a weaker claim and a defensible one.

Before and after videos, and the claim you are making by accident

What to put in the public brief

What to put in the private instructions

Fix the shot conditions in writing

Say what may not be changed

Ask for a dated marker in both frames

State plainly that no change is an acceptable outcome and is paid

Proof worth requiring

Ask for

Do not ask for

Before you run this at all

Common questions

Thinking of taking this task?

Brief a before and after