9.28.2007

Exhibit 3.11

Stock Photography Review

Because why not. It's not as if anyone does or should read this.

Anyway, this piece is from here (in case you don't look, it's a bank's page for online banking) and represents one of my favorite stock photography errors: the out-of-date photo. Usually this happens because A) Someone's not paying attention and uses a photo with a man wearing a Where's the beef? t-shirt or B) Someone is paying attention but only to the bottom line and therefore doesn't want to pay for a new photo where the models don't have polio.

In this case, the bank clearly had put all of their resources into short-wave radio banking and so found themselves ill-prepared for rise of computers and the impact the internet would have on their interactions with customers. After auctioning off their frequency, the bank had raised enough funds to purchase exactly one photo with a computer and has stuck with it since 1994.

My favorite part is the daughter's look of utter confusion at what is being presented to her and the mother's (lover's?) look of quiet superiority as her daughter/lover struggles to navigate her way to the Benneton's website.

Best guesses on what these two are Lycosing:
  • Different World Bonet Cosby Cancelled?
  • Baggy denim shirts
  • Dole/Kemp position NAFTA
  • Perm chatroom
  • Mavis Beacon

Okay, I just put that last search in for all of the sweet Mavis Beacon traffic it will draw.

There are some other great photos on that First National Bank website:

This one is just creepy. I know it's supposed to be a sweet scene between a grandfather and his grandson, but if I had to look at this guy's hairy thighs every time I wanted to see if my student loan payment posted, I'd be pretty bummed. Although, since I've been typing this, I've begun to find it strangely hypnotizing. Better move on.

This is what they have on their loans page which is good as it can't go out of date, but bad in the sense that it basically sends the message that you have to weigh your future if you accept their tantalizing pile of singles. Good god, there must be $100 there. And the Dolphins are getting points this week. But my dying kid... It is good that they refrained from showing the pound of flesh on the other side of the scale.
This is the picture on the telephone banking page and again it's charmingly anachronistic. A corded phone? Ha! Who is this lady, Murphy Brown? Seriously, I could keep going on like this forever. This does little to make phone banking seem appealing, of course, since the woman looks like someone just told her David Caruso gets naked in Jade. Okay, I'll stop.

Maybe the bank is relying on us knowing that she really is just calling a friend for the correct Baby Stew recipe.

3 comments:

Dusty said...

Why is she stirring a pot on a countertop?

Because they couldn't get the camera between her scared and confused face and the wall were she at the stovetop like a normal chef.

"Best guesses on what these two are Lycosing."

Priceless....

Anonymous said...

Is that a glass of milk next to the computer monitor? Seriously.

A. Peterson said...

Milk was the only thing to drink in 1995.

It was truly a delicious epoch.