When I help put together brochures and web sites as part of my job, I try to go real easy on the generic clip art. When pictures are used, they should be indispensable to the story you’re trying to tell. If they’re just used to plug holes in the layout, they’re meaningless.
I’m not saying I always succeed. Sometimes time and resources are limited and you have to plug holes. But if the final product has a bunch of dumb, smiling people then you’ve got a problem.
Somewhere, some marketing bonehead said that “People relate to pictures of people.” So now, everywhere you look, there’s dumb, smiling people. If it’s a business-to-business thing, they wear suits. If it’s a consumer thing, they’re a bunch of casually dressed families. In either case, they often have nothing to do with the product or service. They’re just there.
Take this guy:
He could be happy about semiconductors. Or wave technology. Or that his doctor said “Mylanta.” What does it matter? He’s just a big grinning mook. But I bet that off-the-shelf photo is used in hundreds of web sites.
As bad as these photos are, I think I’ve found the single worst offender of all: Yahoo! mail.
On the sign in page for Yahoo! mail, you’re greeted with this alarming visage:
I don’t have to obsess about most other images I see because I just cruise past them and go on about my business. But as a user of Yahoo mail, I’m forced to see this woman several times a week.
After a while, it starts to get to you. It nags at your thoughts. During a meeting, you begin to wonder: Why does she need to keep in touch? Is she stranded on a rock in the Pacific? Why doesn’t she wash her hair? Is there enough collagen in the world to do what she did to her lips, or was it photoshopped? Futhermore, is she clinically insane? After all, it’s just dumb email. Nothing on God’s green earth should have the power to make someone grin like a baboon 24 hours, 7 days a week. And the most pressing question is, why doesn’t this stringy haired, big lipped freak not have a Gmail account like everyone else?
Speaking of which, Gmail does not have a ludicrous image on their sign in page, because those guys are smart enough to know how annoying a static picture can be to a returning visitor. Which is why I’ll be using their service in the future.
And as for everyone else still using all those generic photos for their marketing projects, I must tell you that people do not necessarily respond to pictures of people. For example, there’s a lot of people in the world that I like--friends and family. There’s a lot of people whom I’m indifferent to, like strangers. And there’s a lot of people I immediately dislike upon sight. Who fits into that category? Anyone in a picture who’s smiling/grinning/sitting around a conference table/shaking hands/jumping up and down/talking on a phone/pointing to a chart.
Well, except for the picture at the top of this page. Anything with a cape is always an exception to the rule.
Posted by Greg at 05:03 AM on 07/11/05